Fall Out
by Semraldo
Summary: Loggerhead is safe the Virals are together and things aren't going that badly for once. Until new problems arise, and Tory and Ben's parents start to worry about their children's antics. Sorry not a great summery but please read and review. T just in case.  BenxTory?  a new mystery and my conclution of the Virals adventures, baisically the Fall Out.
1. Ben, Meat heads and Ghost tours

**Loggerhead is safe the Virals are together and things aren't going that badly for once. Until new problems arise, and Tory and Ben's parents start to worry about their children's antics. Sorry not a great summery but please read and review. Sorry I have a few cuss words, but I don't really like using them that much just as the characters would.**

**I do not own Virals, it's characters or anything else.**

**Read, Enjoy, REVIEW!**

**Ben's POV**

After everything that had happened over the summer school was really mild, and by mild I mean so boring that I thought I was going to go nuts. I didn't like having to sit still and listen to a teacher drag on about how Photosynthesis works in plant cells. I never really liked Biology, but don't get me wrong I was pretty good with school. I liked figuring things out and learning odd, interesting things. Still I wasn't like the other Virals I wasn't a total genius at anything and honestly the only thing I thought I would ever be good at was handling _Sewee_ and even that was a little iffy at times.

Finally the lunch bell rang. I packed up my bag and was just about to get out the door when my teacher called for me.

"Ben, could I see you for a moment?" I fought a curse turning around to go back to the teacher's desk when some d-bag decided to shoulder me as hard as he could.

"What's your problem?" I asked, fighting the urge to throw him thru a wall. He was a jock a stupid meat headed jerk who thought he could do whatever he wanted because his daddy had deep pockets.

"You talkin' to me Island trash?" the jock asked puffing up like he would even know how to throw a punch. Everyone called me and the other Virals Island trash or something to do with the fact we all lived on an island and our parents were all scientists at the loggerhead research institute.

"Hey Dan cool it." A voice came from beside me. I turned to see the king of the meat head, pretty boy, jocks.

"Why don't you stay out of it Jason." I snapped.

"Come on Dan." He said not answering me but grabbing his friend to go. I wanted to pound him into a meat pie, guys like him always drove me nuts, and ever since Tory came along Jason was my least favorite (well I guess Chance was my least favorite but he didn't go to Bolton anymore). Just because they were rich didn't mean they could have whatever they wanted, my brain chimed in, _especially not Tory. _

_Damn._ I thought _Shut up! _I did not like Tory she was a friend that was it, but somehow she was so… different, she was funny, smart, brave. _Stop it!_ I thought.

"Ben." The teacher called interrupting my inner cranial argument.

"Yes Ms. White." I said as politely as I could manage (although it still came out half in a growl).

"Is there something bothering you Ben?" she asked _Oh no I failed the test!_ I thought.

"Why do you ask?" I said praying I was wrong.

"Well you seem tense lately, and just now…"

"Oh." I said "I've just had a lot on my mind lately."

"Well if you need to talk to someone I'm here, and if you don't want to talk to me…"

"I'm fine really." I insisted.

"Ok I just wanted to see if you could get this to Miss Brenan." She held out an envelope addressed to Tory. _Yes! I didn't fail the test!_

"Sure." I said

"Thank you." She said and I turned to walk away "And Ben," I turned back. "Don't worry about what that boy thinks; you and your friends are some of my best students." She said like every other teacher who ever overheard some brat jerking us around. I just nodded and went out to lunch.

"Hey Ben." The voice came from behind me. It was Val Lawson, unlike most of Bolton's students she wasn't half bad she was in my grade she had black hair and blue grey eyes, she liked Paranormal stuff like ghosts, which explained why she handed me a flyer for the Old City Jail ghost tour. "I got a job at Bull Dog, and they handed me these to give out here, the tours really cool, you should come sometime the coupon gets you five bucks off." She said. I thought about the last time I had been on a ghost tour it was with a couple who later tried to kill me and the other Virals, at a place where we were almost killed a couple of times by booby traps, and found a dead body while searching for Ann Bonny's Treasure. To be honest a ghost tour was not my best option for a good time but I took the flyer anyway I didn't want to be mean to the only reasonably nice, non Viral, at my school.

"Thanks I'll think about it." I said

"Ok I'll see you later." Val said before walking off.

I made my way to the cafeteria, got something that resembled food and found the other Virals out in the court yard lined up on a short wall. The Virals consisted of Shelton Devers, Hiram (Hi) Stolowitski, Victoria (Tory) Brennan, and me Ben Blue. Shelton was the resident one man geek squad, he was small, thin and stringy, he wore thick black glasses, had chocolate colored skin and could probably build a super computer with a broken cell phone and a couple paper clips. Hi was a short, plump, aspiring standup comedian, he liked to make random references to pop culture and was an expert in sarcasm. Tory is the newest member of our rag tag team of misfits she is also the youngest, the only girl, and the fearless leader of the Virals. In fact none of us would be Virals without her and her knack for major trouble. See she came to loggerhead about a year ago and a short six months later we all broke into our parent's work place and rescued a wolf dog pup named Coop, within the next few days we all got insanely sick, eventually the bad stuff subsided but we were left with some really weird side effects. We called them flairs, because it felt like a huge flair going off and heightening all our senses, and making us a heck of a lot stronger and faster. We used these mysterious abilities to solve a murder and avoid getting killed by two psychos who had at one point went to our school (Chance being one of them), we then barely got out of trouble before we risked our lives and our secret multiple times to find Ann Bonny's treasure and save the loggerhead institute (I doubt even the devil has that kind of luck). Tory was average height with Red tingly hair, pale skin that seemed to be starting to get used to the Charleston sun, and beautiful emerald eyes that I had seen reflect her brave, stubborn, and intelligent nature. I wasn't much compared to them I'm not all that smart, I'm the oldest but mostly I'm just the only one who can drive. I got my looks from my Sewee decent I had tan skin, black hair and dark brown eyes.

"Hey guys." I said

"Hey Ben." Tory said.

"Oh Tory." I said setting down my things and giving her the envelope "Ms. White gave me this to give to you." she looked at the envelope.

"Ohhhh… Tory's in trouble." Hi said as Tory opened it. She pulled out some papers,

"Well what is it?" Hi asked Tory looked over the papers and refolded it before stuffing it back in the envelope.

"Nothing just a letter about a scholarship." She said but we all knew that wasn't it by the look on her face. "Anyway, I have to get to the library to look up some stuff for my history report." She said gathering her book bag and trash from her lunch.

"I'll go with you." I said without really thinking about it first. "I need to work on a Biology report." I added quickly.

"Ok." She said waiting for me to get my stuff up before we left. "So what the report on?" I asked as we made our way down the hall

"Historical Buildings in Charleston." She said. "I can't seem to think of anything that isn't already taken."

"Well what's taken?" I asked.

"Um, Fort Sumter, a bunch of old houses, something about a mill house." I laughed at her _extensive_ knowledge of Charleston. "What?" she demanded.

"You mean the Mills House Hotel?" I said.

"Oh, yeah that was it. Since you're such an expert maybe you can think of something."

"Well what about Fort Moultrie?" I said.

"Taken."

"How about the bunkers? That would be cool and it was a fort." I said.

"Hi is in my class, we flipped a coin to figure out who could do that one, he won."

"Oh, umm what about this." I said holding up the flyer Val gave me.

"That's perfect!" she half squealed and sped the rest of the way to the library with me trailing after her. By the time I caught up she was already on a computer I took the seat next to her. "Ben you are a genius!" she said. "This place is nutty with history, and it's not taken yet."

"You're easily impressed aren't you?" I said. She smiled, she had a nice smile.

"Weren't you going to do some essay or something?" I was already mostly done with the essay but I pulled out the paper anyway.

"If you want we could take the tour sometime." I said. "I'm sure the ghost stories will be the best way to weed out the most interesting facts." I said

"You don't have to…" she started to say.

"I think it'll be fun." I said cutting her off.

"Will your dad let you?" she asked referring to the fact that unlike her dad the other Viral's parents weren't giving up on controlling us. However my dad was pretty lenient as long as I didn't let mom know (she was not happy that dad "allowed" me to do such dangerous things).

"Yeah, still we should probably sign up for the earlier one." I said.

"What about the others?" she asked.

"We'll have to see but I think it'll be cool." He said.

"Ok and thanks." She said. The bell rang and I realized I hadn't eaten any lunch, but at that particular moment I didn't really care.

**What do you think? If you want more REVIEW if I don't get any reviews I'll think that no one wants to read anymore and I won't bother posting any more. **

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	2. Tory, Russian spys and Crazy dads

**I do not own Virals, its characters or anything else about it, but please enjoy.**

**This one is a little short, but Read, Enjoy and ****REVIEW****!**

**Tory's Pov**

"Can I go out tonight?" I asked Kit.

"That depends what are you planning to do, some assassin work for the Russians perhaps?" he joked, ever since I told him about the Ann Boney treasure he was always jokeing about how I was going to rob a bank when he left or (I think his favorite) spy for the Russians.

"No, I'm going on a ghost tour for my school project."

"What's the class paranormal 101 the fundamentals of psychicism?" he asked

"No history, I'm doing a project on the old city jail." I said.

"Oh, that sounds interesting who all is going?" he asked

"Just me and Ben." I said as Hi was going to some temple event with his mom and Shelton was "tied down" by a level that he couldn't beat on some video game.

"Are you sure it's for school?" he asked. For a second I didn't really know what he was talking about, and then it hit me.

"It's not like that." I said hoping I didn't blush too much.

"Ok, whatever you say." He said skeptically.

"I'm serious we aren't… Ben isn't…" he started to snicker at me _real supportive there pops. _I thought "I'll be home by ten." I said before grabbing my coat and heading towards the door.

"Wait a second." He said and I spun around to face him again.

"Isn't there something you want to tell me?" he asked I racked my brain

"um…" I said

"Your counselor called she said you've been invited to governors school." He said smiling broadly. _Dang._ I thought not that the governor's school was bad in fact it's the best school in South Carolina but it meant I would have to leave Charleston to go there, and that meant I would have to leave the Virals. After all that we went thru to stay together I wasn't leaving now.

"Right." I said. "Um I don't think I'm going to do it." I said his smile faded.

"Tory, this is a big opportunity." He said

"I've got to meet Ben can we talk about this later?" I asked Kit rubbed his face with his hands.

"Sure, have fun, but not too much fun." He said as I opened the door.

"Bye Kit." I said then made my way down to the docks.

Ben was Readying _Sewee_ and Mr. Blue apparently just finished docking the ferry for the night.

"Ben I can give you and your friend a ride…" I heard Mr. Blue tell his son.

"Dad its fine." Ben said. I stepped forward onto the dock and Ben looked up, catching my eye.

"Oh… I see," Mr. Blue said when he turned to see me. "Going with a _friend_ huh." The way he said it reminded me of the way my dad reacted when I told him it was just me and Ben going tonight. _Why does everyone think me and Ben are together? _ I thought _He is pretty good looking _my subconscious reminded me. _Shut up. I don't like Ben._ I scolded my mind but it kept going. _Why not he's hot, he's 16, and he's single._ I continued this argument with myself bringing up that even if I liked him ben didn't like me, and that Ben was my friend that's all, until Mr. Blue came up the dock toward me_. _

"Take care of my boy now, don't let the ghosts scare him too much." He said

"DAD!" Ben called annoyed.

"Fine I'm going." Mr. Blue said raising his hands in surrender then disappearing into the trees. I walked down the dock to Sewee which since the Treasure, Ben had fixed up quite nicely. As I reached the skip and started to get on it moved back causing me to reel backwards Ben caught my arm and pulled me forward a bit too hard causing me to fall into him nearly knocking him backwards as well. Finally we both regained our balance and ben still had his hand on my arm, standing close enough for me to see the dimming sunlight to reflect in his eyes.

"Have a nice trip?" he asked, and I couldn't tell whether it was his smile or the dancing reflection of the water that lit up his beautiful dark eyes.

"You need an update in your joke book." I said softly, I could still feel my cheeks reddening and I hoped it was too dark to see. He he smiled even wider and huffed a laugh. Then his smile dimmed and he began to pull away.

"We should get going, we don't wanna be late." He said, but I didn't want to go, I wanted him to come back so I could watch his sparkling smile in his eyes._ What am I thinking? That's not something that friends wanted to do. Do I like Ben?_

_**NO!**__ Ben is one of your best friends, nothing else!_ And yet I couldn't stop the thoughts I had always thought Ben was good looking, I mean he was extremely good looking but, he was a friend, he had always been a friend. Now… now… now I was totally and completely puzzled.

**Sorry this one's probably not my best work. Same deal please comment, I'm not sure about the speed of this story it's supposed to be short but I can be a little long winded. Review to tell me what you liked and what you didn't I need your help. I need 2 reviews to post the next chapter. Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter and I really hope you enjoyed it. **

**THANK YOU and DFTBA (I really hope somebody gets that.)**


	3. Tory and Ben Angst and Body

**OK This is** **where it gets interesting.**

**Read Enjoy and REVIEW**

**Ben's Pov**

_Damn! Why did she have to be so frickin beautiful? So funny? So amazing? Why did she have to be so… so… Tory?_ She fell into the boat and I had caught herI looked right into her Emerald eyes. _Why do I have to me so crazy about her? _Ever since she came here she's been so… different. Most of the girls I knew were the rich snotty jerks who thought they could get anything they wanted by batting there pretty little lashes and had everyone wrapped around their manicured fingers like there 14 karat gold rings, but not Tory. Tory was beautiful but not in the normal way, not with perfect hair and nails, not with designer clothes and accessories, just naturally. She was dorky (that's a good thing from my perspective), smart, witty, fun… still I didn't think I really liked her at first, but the more I was around her the more I was awed by the red headed dog lover. Then we got thrown a dog tag by a monkey (long story that ended up with us fighting two kids from our school, with the superpowers we acquired from a sick dog), and I started to see the strength, and genius that hid under her pail skin. Deep in her small body lay the heart of a wolf; loyal, fearsome, and so brave.

_STOP IT! _I told myself. I couldn't think like that, I didn't want Tory to find out and then ruin our friend ship because I had a stupid crush on her. I didn't want to lose her.

**Tory's Pov**

Ben didn't say much on the way there he cursed a couple things including, another boat, a tangled rope, and some loud drunk guy. This wasn't surprising behavior for Ben (he was a man of very few words). However the silence aggravated me, mostly because it made me think. I kept thinking about Ben, about the way I felt about him. He was so… moody. Sometimes he was nice, kind, funny, and gentlemanly; but other times he was harsh, cold, rude, and generally annoying. The more I thought about him the more I realized how little I knew about the tall dark and handsome skip captain. I had never seen his mom, I didn't really know what he liked to do, other than drive _Sewee, _I knew he liked old Sewee Indian stories (though that was only because of Ann Bonny's treasure). I didn't know much about him at all. Luckily I was saved from my thoughts by an instant bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, when we stepped under the arch in front of the jail's court yard. I had heard of people having weird feelings when they were around something that was "haunted" but I am a scientist things like that had plenty of rational explanations. _The building is just creepy _I thought _man I'm a whimp. _

As we joined the group the guide introduced himself, he was a plump young man about 20 or so with light brown hair that was cut short giving him an odd looking baby face. He told us the basics like when the jail was built and what it was used for, like a prison camp in the civil war, and a slave hospital for a while. We followed the guy around the building and the feeling in the pit of my stomach got worse and worse. He led us inside and into several rooms each one darker than the next, telling us about the prisoners and guards that they believed still roamed the halls and cells. Until we came to a room that was pitch black, I listened as the guide described a brutal guard, but was destracted by the felling in the pit of my stomach I wasn't just creeped out I was scared, I felt full on unprecedented terror. Then…

**SNAP**

Quickly I covered my eyes but Ben noticed his arm was on mine almost instantly he whispered into my ear what would be in audible to anyone else.

"What the Hell are you doing?"

"Get me out of here." I whispered back.

"I'm sorry." He said interrupting the guide "She has a migraine we need to go." Migraine was my usual fall back. The guide turned on his flash light.

"Looks like your girlfriend is reacting to the spirits." The guide said I would have pointed out that I wasn't his girlfriend and there was no such thing as ghosts, but at that time I was in no position to argue.

"We need to go." Ben said again a bit more edgy this time

"Out the door down the steps and it's the door on the end." The guide said. Ben guided me, my eyes still covered until I felt the cool night breeze.

"Were out." Ben said and I uncovered my eyes. He didn't look too happy flaring in public was a big no no. "What were you thinking?" he asked in a partial hiss

"I…" I started to reply but a short breath thru the nose stopped me. I sniffed again.

"What are you doing?" Ben asked impatiently.

"Do you smell that?" I asked

"Smell what?" he asked, I sniffed the air sorting thru all the smells the smell was strong to me disgusting an idea of what it was played in the back of my mind but I didn't believe it. I started in the direction the stink was coming from. "Where are you going?" he asked. I didn't answer, I just stayed my course until the smell was over powering and almost made me sick. By this time Ben obviously smelled it. "what is that?"

My nose lead me to a old wooden cart I covered my nose and reached for the doors.

"I don't think that's…" ben started but the door was open. I let out a yelp and Ben pulled me back into him. I tore my eyes away and buried my face into Ben's chest, who wrapped his arms tightly around me.

**SNUP**

I don't know how long we stood there before I heard the voice of an elderly woman who had been part of the tour group.

"Honey are you..?" she gasped "Oh my… Hank! Hank call the police!" I felt her hand on my shoulder. "Come on sweetie lets come over here. "

I barely heard the old woman I couldn't get the image out of my head. It was a corpse, I had seen two corpses before but they had been nothing but bone, this one looked… human. It was a girl close to my age judging by the size and cloths; she was partially decomposed and had maggots where her eyes should be. But what got me the most was the hair, long and auburn. _Hannah._

**Trouble just follows Tory everywhere. What do you think? I want to thank emmylia6, writergirl99, and** **DanceMockingbird for your support and reviews. Tell me what you think I need 2 reviews again to post the next chapter if you want more please REVIEW. **

**Thank you so much!**

**DFTBA**


	4. Ben Silance and Shellfish

**Sorry I didn't publish over the weekend I'm so happy with the responses I'm getting if you want more all you have to do is send me reviews I can't know how I'm doing if you don't. Thanks so much for the support!**

**I do not own Virals. **

**Read Enjoy Review **

**Ben's POV**

It didn't take long for the police to arrive. I called my dad telling him what happened and asking him to tell Tory's dad. He said they would be there in just a few minutes. I then sat down next to Tory on the edge of a small flower bed.

"You ok?" I asked knowing neither of us could really be classified as "ok"

"Did you see her?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah."

"It looked like…" I cut her off knowing she was going to say Hannah (Hannah Wythe went to our school and eventually tried to kill us.)

"I know, but she's been in Columbia since… you know."

"I have a really bad feeling about this Ben." She said. Without thinking I put my arm around her shoulders.

"Well, you've always got the Virals we've got your back, no matter what." She leaned her head onto my shoulder, making my heart flop around in my chest like a suffocating fish.

"Thanks Ben." She said. We sat in silence for a few moments until an officer came around the corner Tory lifted her head and I dropped my arm.

"So you two are the kids that found the body?" The officer said we nodded. The man was about 20 something 5'9" with brown hair and eyes, slightly plump with a mustache that looked really odd on a babyish face.

"We're goina' need you to come with us."

"What'd you do this time Ben?" my dad's voice came from behind me. Tory and I both turned to see both our dads and… Shelton?

"Can't go five minutes without someone having to call the police on you, can you?" Shelton asked, always being the Jiminy Cricket voice of the group, Shelton was generally the one who insisted that doing the many things that tend to get us into trouble is a bad idea. Yet I don't think it has ever really deterred Tory and if Tory was in the rest of us were sure to follow suit. Not that we were always particularly happy about it.

"What are you doing here?" I asked

"You called me remember." My dad answered. I rolled my eyes.

"Not you." I pointed at my dad "him." I pointed at Shelton

"How could I not come? I can't risk you having even more fun without me." He said although the last word I would use to describe the night's events was fun I just shook my head and turned back to the officer.

"We just need to ask them a few questions about the find." He said.

"What is it that they've found?" Tory's dad asked.

"A corpse. From the looks of it, a young woman." The officer answered.

Shelton's eyes widened as if to say _another one!_

"You must be their parents. We just need them to answer a few questions for us." the officer said.

"Do they have to go to a police satiation to answer a few questions?" Shelton asked.

"Well no not really but I didn't think they wanted to be here too much longer." The officer said. "If you would like, you can follow me to the station and we'll get this over with as quickly as possible." I turned to Tory who looked almost ghostly in the moon light she nodded.

"Ok." I said. With that we loaded into Mr. Brenan's car and on the ride I recounted the find, Tory added things in every once in a while, but she seemed distracted, lost in thought. I wished that I could read her mind like she could mine. (Yeah none of us really know how that works but it does get kinda weird especially when I think about how I feel about her and have to pray that she didn't hear it.) I could tell Shelton was bursting with questions and since he wasn't asking them I assumed that they had to do with our abilities we would have to fill him and Hi in in the bunker where it was safe. When we got to the station Tory and I were led to a small office, Tory's dad wanted to come in too but tory insisted it was fine and he eventually just left and sat with my dad and Shelton in the waiting room.

"So what are your names?" the officer asked closing the door.

"Tory." She said bluntly without much attention.

"Ben" I said

"And how long have you too been dating?"

"What!"

"We aren't!" Tory and I said in unison.

"Oh come on now it ain't nothin' to get all worked up about. It's pretty obvious what you were doing out there."

"We weren't… we aren't together." Tory said making my heart drop a little. _Well she's telling the truth we aren't together. _I thought _well maybe you should fix that. _UGGH I'm going insane! I'm arguing with my own thoughts, why did tory have to do this kind of thing to me? the officer held up his hands in surrender

"Ok, whatever you say." He said not really believing it. "Then what were you doing when you found the body?" the officer asked and we told him the same thing we told our dads. How tory caught a whiff of the decomposition (carefully leaving out that she had a superhuman since of smell at the time) and how we found the body in the cart. He asked a couple more things and then let us go.

It was a really long way to the complex by car most of the way was silent I looked over at Tory as she stared out into the night moonlight illuminating her emerald eyes and highlighting her pail skin. I was broken out of my trance with Shelton's elbow in my rib cage. I looked down to see 2 new messages one from Hi saying

_What the hell dude! Can't leave you alone for five minutes._

And the other from Shelton.

_Drop the longing gaze prince charming you're attracting the king's attention._

Sure enough I looked up to see Mr. Brenan glancing at me in the rear view mirror. I typed a message back.

_Shut it Shellfish._

He shook his head at me. It seemed the only one who didn't notice my crush on Tory was… well… Tory.

**That seems like a good stopping point. What do you think? Review for more and I'll try and post again a.s.a.p. unfortunately coming to the end of the semester I don't have as much time as I would like. I'll do my best as long as you guys keep up with the reviews.**

**THANK YOU SO MUCH **

**PLEASE REVIEW **

**DFTBA**


	5. Tory and Ben Friends and Moms

**Hey Guys thanks so much for everything you've been saying you're really pushing me to write! THANKS!**

**I do not own Virals.**

**Tory's Pov,**

I laid in bed and simply stared at the ceiling. As much as I tried I couldn't clear my mind, I couldn't stop thinking. The smell of rotting flesh remained in my nose the vision of the body maggots for eyes, bones showing under flesh, the hair… worst of everything wasn't anything I could since, it was the feeling. I knew who was in that cart, I knew she was murdered and worse than anything else somehow I knew it had something to do with us.

_You're being stupid _I thought

_The world doesn't revolve around you and your friends. You don't even know for sure it's Hannah._ But I did I had no doubt it was Hannah and no matter how absurd it seemed the feeling wouldn't go away. Finally I got up, and went over to the computer. Pulling up google I started my search but I found nothing. I cursed. It was already 3 A.M. I rubbed my face. "What are you thinking?" I asked myself.

I laid back onto my bed. _Come on think about something else. _I thought

_What about Ben? _I didn't know that was any better but it already started I thought about the way everyone kept saying we were together, and how I didn't know if that was what annoyed me or if it was that I kind of liked it. What if we were together, would that be so bad? The way he acted tonight… he did everything right, without really meaning to he didn't try and convince me everything was ok, he didn't try and get me to talk about it, he was just there. He was strong when I wasn't he just held me, I listened to his heart beat and it calmed me down enough for me to lose my flair. Before it wasn't like this Ben has generally been the only fish in a extremely small pond, but maybe he wasn't as harsh as I thought before. _NO! stop it right now! Ben is one of your best friends, you can't do this! _

Still the change of thoughts helped me relax just enough to help me fall into a dream.

Ben's POV

I barely got any sleep, but when I finally managed to get any it was anything but restful. In the dream I stood in the court yard of the jail I called out for something or maybe someone but all I could tell was that I was panicking whatever it was I needed it and it wasn't there. I snapped my eyes open only to be blinded. The morning sun made the whole room so bright it hurt. Immediately I heard the voices down stairs I recognized them as my parents but couldn't tell exactly what they were saying. _Damn! _I thought _I was supposed to be at my mom's this morning._ Slowly I got up and pulled a shirt on. Making my way to the stair case when I could clearly hear the argument.

"Are you saying this is my fault!" my dad asked

"Maybe if you didn't let him run around like a wild animal, he wouldn't get in so much trouble." My mom's voice hit me like a hard punch. _Wild animal?_

"He went to a ghost tour with his friend!" my dad said.

"Tom, in the past couple months Ben has been in more dangerous situations than I have ever been in." mom said.

"So he's had some bad luck, I can't punish him for that."

"No, it isn't bad luck Tom, if he was raised in a normal environment he wouldn't have ever been in any of those situations, and don't even get me started with those friends of his."

"There's nothing wrong with his environment or his friends they're good kids."

"Well it's not their fault that their parents are too busy to worry about taking care of their children but I can't have my son being part of this."

"Of what! He went out with a girl who is an extremely good kid and has a great man for a father. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, that doesn't mean they've done anything wrong!" my dad all but yelled.

"Tom this isn't just one time, my son has had to fight for his life twice, and it all started when that 'good girl' showed up! I wouldn't be surprised if it's because of her that he gets in so much trouble! He needs to be somewhere where he can be a normal kid!" something snapped and I came barreling down the stairs.

"Don't you DARE… Don't you dare say that! I'm not dysfunctional, I'm not a 'wild animal', my friends are amazing, and it isn't Tory's fault that we get into trouble! If anyone is at fault it certainly isn't any of them and it definitely isn't dad!" both my parents looked shocked. My mom let out a deep breath.

"Ben, I don't mean that there bad, it's just maybe if you weren't so isolated…"

"I'm not isolated! If you wanna find my problem maybe you should look in the mirror!" I knew I didn't mean that but I couldn't stop myself. My mom gasped. As I pushed past her.

"BEN!" Dad called but I didn't stop and when I got out the door I broke into a run not thinking about where I was going I just ran.

**Ben's mom is kind of… mom like. She's annoying but she has good intentions. **

**Want more? REVIEW!**

**THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!**

**What do you think? Please Review I need to know how I'm doing! **

**DFTBA**


	6. Tory Dreams and Pancakes

**I do not own Virals and I'm not Kathy Richs. **

**I almost thought I had lost everyone; I have a policy about only submitting new posts when I have reviews. Finally I got some so now THANK YOU SO MUCH! And please enjoy.**

**Tory's Pov. **

I stood on the docs as Ben came up. He guided _Sewee_ skillfully into its place.

"Where have you been?" I asked.

"Just out for a bit." He said "it's a great day for sailing." he smiled

"Really?" I asked slyly.

"Best I've seen in a while. Would you like a ride?" it was my turn to smile.

"Sure." I said he held his hand out to help me onto the skip. With me safely aboard we set off to nowhere in particular finally he cut the engine out in the basic middle of nowhere.

"Why did we stop?" I asked. Ben stood and pulled me to my feet he looked… determined. "Ben?"

"There's something I've been meaning to tell you." He said

"Ok Shute" I said and before I could move he kissed me, full out, on the lips. Then he was _gone._ I looked around. "Ben?" I called. "Ben where are you?" something broke the surface of the water beside me. "Ben?" I asked but when I looked over the side it was clearly not Ben. It was Hannah partially decomposed floating on the surface of the water. I screamed.

…0…

I snapped my eyes open and jolted upright, breathing heavily. I felt like someone had punched the air from my lungs.

"Tory are you ok?" Kit said bursting into the room with Whitney standing behind him.

"What? I… I'm fine." I said stumbling over the words.

"We thought we heard a scream." He insisted.

"I… I… there was a spider." I said dumbly. "But I got it." I continued with my particularly lame excuse which kit didn't buy for one minute. "What's Whitney doing here?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"Kit called last night, I wanted to come over and make sure you were ok." She said. Her southern drawl pulling the words out like taffy.

"Oh, thanks." I said unsure, the truth was I wasn't exactly crazy about Whitney Dubois. She had been my dad's girlfriend since before I came to Charleston, since before Kit knew I even existed. Whitney was a true southern bell to the core. She was the reason for my ever torturous Jr. Debutant excursions. Whitney didn't like my tom boyish attitude, she insisted I become a Deb like her and that I act like her. I guess that isn't actually horrible I did have a tendency to get into trouble with my friends (although that could be partly because of our Viral abilities) and I guess being ladylike isn't awful but if she was in my shoes she would probably dislike her too. The truth was I definitely wasn't cut out for the southern bell style. Heck I was from Massachusetts. Anyway Whitney wasn't my favorite person on earth but since when did kit call her when I got into things?

"I made pancakes if you want some." She said, there were a lot of things I didn't like about Whitney, but even I had to admit her cooking was phenomenal. I got up and followed the two down stairs. They were acting weird, but I didn't say anything until I finished three pancakes (I was starving and didn't want to ruin my appetite.

"Ok so what the heck's going on?" I asked as no one had said anything since we started eating. Kit and Whitney exchanged a glance.

"Your father and I are worried about you." Whitney said. I raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Tory you have been getting into a lot of trouble lately." Kit said. "And now you don't even want to take an amazing opportunity like Governor's school."

"Kit, I just don't want to go to governor's school."

"It's the best school in the state and you won't even think about it." Kit said.

"I have a life here I have my friends…"

"Your friends get into the same trouble you do. Tory i really think you should take the opportunity and…

"This is my life Kit! I'm not going to governor's school." I said before storming out.

**Sorry this one was so short the next will be longer I promise. Tell me what you think. I'll post again when I get a couple reviews. Be honest I need your help.**

**THANK YOU SO MUCH.**

**DFTBA **


	7. Ben and Tory Questions and Answers?

**Thanks to those of you who reviewed your comments often make my day. But if you see something that could be better please tell me thanks :D !**

**Ok Sorry this one took a while I wanted to make sure I did it right (though I'm still not sure I did) the emotions in this are ober complicated and well just read and find out.**

**I do NOT own virals**

**Ben's pov **

I made my way down to the bunker without really even thinking about it. What the hell was wrong with my mom? Ok so in the last year or so the other Virals and I have done some things of well less than absolute legality but we always do them for good reasons like solving the murder of Katharine Heaton, or saving the loggerhead institute. She couldn't talk about them like there wild animals they weren't, and if any of us were it was definitely not Tory. She couldn't just take me away this was my home. I needed to be here to be with the other Virals, to be with Tory…_Damn it! _I couldn't keep thinking about Tory like that, but I couldn't help it she drove me insane and there was nothing I could do to stop it. My mom wanted to take me away from the people I cared about the most, and she couldn't do that! then again I guess she doesn't know about the Virals, she didn't really understand how much we need each other. What if she did make me leave what would I do? What could I do? I was lost in these nightmarish thoughts when someone came in.

….0…

**Tory Pov**

I stood in the doorway of the bunker, inside was Ben sitting against the wall, and looking out onto the ocean. The morning light bathed him in glowing red. His eyes shined bright and beautiful, he looked a little tired, his sleek black hair was tousled like he had just gotten out of bed but still seemed to shine with the rest of him in the early sunlight. I stepped inside and his head snapped up bringing his eyes to meet mine.

"Hey. What's up?" I said coming in. He looked back out at the bay again.

"Just…thinking." He said as I sat down on the bench opposite him.

"About what?" I asked then I thought how stupid I was, _what do you mean about what? You two found a body last night._

"Just…things." He said still not looking at me.

"You know I never asked you last night, are you ok?" I said

"I'm fine, I was more worried about you." He said looking down at a tear in his shorts.

"Ben look at me." I said he hesitated then did. My eyes met his and for a second I got lost in them, their dark yet warm color, the way the reflected light, and the mystery they presented. For most people Ben seemed harsh, rude, and generally uncaring. He had an awful temper, and a no BS attitude. To those people his eyes reflected that, flat and uncaring nature. The problem was that the more I got to know him the more I realized that the Ben Blue that everyone else saw wasn't the same as the one that sat in front of me. Ben did care about things, a lot of things in fact. That was even more true of the Ben that had been holding me and comforting me last night. That Ben, the Ben that I knew, lay inside the person everyone else saw. My Ben was strong, not just like pro wrestler strong but the type of strong that seemed to radiate, the kind that held me together when I wanted to fall apart. My Ben was steady, reliable, I always knew he was there he had my back. My Ben… My Ben… was amazing.

My phone beeped I tore my eyes away from his looking down at the message.

_I need to talk to you._

_-Jason_

I looked again at the message I hadn't talked to Jason since I told him no about the Deb ball. What did he want now?

"What's that?" Ben asked.

"Jason…" before I could finish my Ben was gone, suddenly replaced by the one other people saw. His mouth turned into a tight line, his dark eyes got a little darker and more blunt.

"Of course it is." He said harshly.

"What is your problem?" I asked standing up automatically.

"Me? What can I say; I'm allergic to meat heads." He said standing over me now.

"Jason is not a meat head, and what the hell did he ever do to you?" I said spitting my words as harshly as he did. He just rolled his eyes and turned toward the exit. "Oh no you don't!" I said grabbing him by the arm and forcing him to face me. "I've dealt with it so far, but not anymore. Tell me right now. Why do you hate Jason?" he rolled his eyes again.

"You really don't get it do you?" he asked apparently exasperated.

"NO! I DON'T" I scream. He stepped closer glairing down at me. I stepped up setting my face in stone the same way he did.

"For someone who's so damn smart you really are so frickin dumb!" he said this made my blood boil I hated it when people called me dumb, and I let my face show it.

"You're one to talk Blue!" I spat. Of course I didn't really mean that but he was really pissing me off.

"I might not be a genius but at least I know when someone's jealous!" He said

"Wait you're jealous of Jason?" I asked

"Ugh. Yeah Duh."

"Because he's rich?" I asked "Ben that's just…"

"God Tory!" he yelled interrupting me. "It's not because he's rich."

"Then why are you…" the rest of my words got lost when Ben's mouth pressed down on mine. His lips were warm and soft and the kiss was short. The second his mouth met mine my brain seemed to burn out. Part of me wanted to push him away and yell at him or… something, but the other part of me wanted to pull him against me and kiss him back. However as the two sides met they seemed to explode taking my ability to think and move away with it. Soon he pulled back and we stood there in the bunker staring each other in the eyes without a single sound interrupting.

Without a single word, or thought I ran, out of the bunker, as fast as I could.

**Well… What do you think? I seriously have no idea how that worked. Again sorry it took so long I'll try and do better but you know I have classes and exams and ugh! Anyway please Review I need three this time. THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SO MUCH!**

**DFTBA**


	8. Ben, Stupid and Idiotic

**I am really sorry this took so long I didn't mean for it to, but I got wraped up in school and stupid tests. Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter you guys really made my day. **

**I do NOT own Virals **

**That being said please enjoy!**

**Ben's Pov**

_What the hell is wrong with you? _I asked myself I couldn't even start to understand what I just did. So I turned and punched the solid concrete wall of the bunker (not my best idea) immediately pain shot up my arm and I let out a string of curses a mile long. Looking at knuckles now red and bleeding slightly. _How many dumb ass things are you going to do today? _I asked myself. Which only brought me back to Tory, I kissed her. Out of nowhere I just kissed her of course she freaked here I am one of her best friends just grabbing her and…

"Ugh!" I expressed my anger at my infinite stupidity.

"Do I want to know what's going on?" a voice came from the bunker entrance I turned to see Shelton looking at me with an eyebrow raised.

"How long have you been here?" I asked more sharply than I intended.

"I was coming down here to get some peace and quiet so I could focus on my game then I see Tory running off, I tried to catch her but I think she might have flared because she just disappeared into the woods then I hear you screaming every cuss word you know at the top of your lungs. It doesn't bode well." He said.

"Peace and quiet from what I thought your parents were working today?" I said avoiding the original subject.

"Not my parents, yours they were really going at it I couldn't make out what they were saying but they were both seriously pissed." Great as if today wasn't bad enough now my parents were fighting so loud even Shelton could hear it. "What's up with that?"

"My mom thinks I'm a wild animal. Apparently normal children don't find buried treasures, murderous nuts and dead bodies every week." I said.

"Well I don't think anyone would accuse any of us as normal, but that's still a little harsh." Shelton said coming farther in and sitting on a green fold out beach chair (with the money from Ann Bonny's doubloons tory had been decking out the Bunker it now had a small table, solar panels which we almost never used because they kind of gave away our position but we sometimes put in a clever little spot that can only be seen from 3 spots and only if you're looking for them, a lamp to go with the panels, four chairs, a mega emergency kit (because we had a tendency to get into trouble and a dog bed for Tory's wolf dog pup Cooper.

"Yeah…"

"Ok but what about Tory, why was she running like the devil was on her heels and why are you screaming at nothing?" Shelton had always been my closest friend, before Tory came along I was the one who got him into trouble (admittedly not quite as much trouble). He knew me better than any of the Virals and yet I just couldn't quite bring myself to tell him about Tory, so…

"We got into an argument." I said bluntly. It was (at least partially) the truth.

"What about?" he asked _Dang._

"Nothing it doesn't matter." I said, but I knew Shelton saw right past that.

"What was it about?" he insisted.

"I don't know she was texting Jason and I went off on her then… I was an idiot and I pissed her off."

"You went off on her for texting Jason?" he raised an eyebrow at me.

I sounded like an idiot, _Sounded?_ _Shut up!_ Shelton shot up his hands signaling surrender

"Sorry man, it's just kind of weird that's all." Only then did I realize my internal argument had gone verbal.

"Not you… I didn't mean… ugh I don't know!" Shelton laughed.

"Wow fighting with Tory messed you _all _up." he said emphasizing 'all' _you have no idea _I thought but didn't say anything. "What happened to your hand?" he asked suddenly noticing my bleeding and bruising knuckles as I rubbed my face.

"Punched a wall." I said grimly. He laughed again and shook his head.

"What did the poor wall ever do to you?" he asked jokingly.

"I was tired of it just standing there doing nothing." I said sarcastically.

"So you tried to take it down with your fist? You're a real genius Benny boy."

"Oh, can it Devers."

"Ok so let me get this straight Tory texts Jason, you go off on Tory, Tory runs for it, and then you decide to treat the concrete wall like a punching bag." He shook his head. "Something doesn't fit here." I looked up. "I mean when you're mad any normal person would run for it, but Tory isn't a normal person, she wouldn't just run away from you."

"She might…"

"what really happened Ben?" Shelton insisted. Then his eyes widened, "you wouldn't…" I could read the rest in his face. The way he looked from my hand to my face.

"NO! Shelton you know I would never… I would NEVER lay a hand on her, you know that, you of all people." He looked down.

"Yeah… yeah I know that, it's just… you're right I know you wouldn't do that." It was silent for a few moments.

"Something must have happened." I didn't know what to say. But I was saved from having to say anything by Hi running in looking like a ripe tomato. He breathed heavily gasping , able to speak only in raspy sighs. I couldn't make out any of it.

"Breath big man, what's up?" he took a few deep breaths and finally came out with something audible.

"Your mom… is packing…stuff she's… she's ranting…" my eyes widened my mom always did things quickly but… no, no way she wouldn't. Would she?

**Mwa ha ha ha ha! Cliffhanger! Yeah sorry about that I'll try and have the next one a lot quicker but school is cracking down on me I. I need 3 reviews before I post so if you want more REVIEW. They really do help me. I hope to post again really really soon so tell me what you think.**

**THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH!**

**DFTBA**


	9. Tory and Ben, Panic and Chill

**Sorry this one is a little more like me (short and jumpy) but I promise I'm trying my best.**

**I do not own Virals but thanks for reading anyway. **

**Thanks for all the great reviews! Please enjoy!**

**Tory's Pov **

I had no idea how fast or far I went I knew I was flaring so probably pretty far and pretty fast. I finally stopped as I came to a beach.

_Why the Hell are you running! _I asked myself.

_Maybe because he kissed me._

_Again, why are you running? That's what you wanted right?_

_NO NO! well… UGH_ even the arguing thoughts in my head couldn't decide which side they were on. These confused arguments continued in my head for far too long than was healthy before my phone beeped again.

_I have to talk to you its important!_

_-Jason_

"Maybe I don't want to talk to you!" I screamed at my phone before throwing it to the ground which while flaring was a dumb idea. I guessed it wasn't supposed to break into that many pieces. I let out a scream of overflowing emotion and sank down to my knees. "What the hell is wrong with me?" I asked myself covering my face with my hands. I had never been so confused in my life! Coop soon came bounding out of the trees and I could tell he was worried.

"Hey boy, it's ok." I said reaching out and petting him behind the ear. He just looked at me for a minute then curled up beside me, calming me enough to lose my flair. I just sat there not wanting to think, or move just petting my dog and looking out onto the water.

**Sorry that part was really short but I needed to show how Tory felt too. Anyway moving on…**

**Ben's Pov**

Shelton and I walked with a partially exhausted Hi back to the Barracks to find my mom packing her car with my stuff, far more than I needed for the weekend.

"umm, mom, what's going on?" I asked

"You're coming with me." she ordered

"Mom you can't just…" she cut me off

"I can and I am, now say goodbye to your little friends." I looked over to my dad standing in the door way. I stomped over to him.

"Aren't you going to do anything?" I asked, he didn't answer. I huffed, "Of course not, you never have why start now?" without allowing him to answer I stormed off toward the trees.

"Where do you think you are going?" my mom yelled.

"Well I'm not going with you, that's for sure!" I yelled back not willing to turn and face her.

"BENJAMAN BLUE! You will come here this _instant_!" mom half screamed half hissed. I turned on my heel.

"Oh please! Why don't you just drive off like you always do and leave us alone!"

**Snap**

_Shit!_

I ran away not hearing what my mom said next. I got in _Sewee _and cast off escaping into the bay.

**Snup**

I must have been out there for at least half an hour before a boat came up next to mine I looked over to see my dad throwing a rope over. I caught it and we pulled the boats together. I didn't say anything I knew I had already said far more than enough.

"I know you don't want to do this ben, I don't want this either but, you know how Myra can be. It won't be forever but for now…"

"Go along with it?" I asked "Leave all my friends? Leave my home? Because she thinks I'm an uncivilized…whatever she thinks I am?"

"Ben she threatened to get lawyers involved. I will get you back I promise, I know this is hard, and you shouldn't have to do it but…"

"Fine whatever." _Maybe this is for the best; Tory probably hates me now anyway._ Before I could really move my dad wrapped me in a hug just like he did when I was younger the day mom left, telling me things would be ok. I hugged him back, just like back then it wasn't his fault.

**Aww! That was SO sappy I know hopefully it was a little less than sickeningly sweet. **

**No cliffy this time but I want you to review either way I know there are people reading but I need to know if you want to read more. PLEASE tell me I need 4 reviews to continue they don't have to be compliments but I don't take any criticism other than constructive. **

**Thank you guys so much for reading and hanging in there I think I'll be getting into the more mystery action kind of thing soon. You guys are awesome!**

**DFTBA**


	10. Tory, Boys and Escapees

**Thank you all for the amazing reviews. I'm so sorry this took so long I'm really trying please enjoy.**

**I do not own Virals.**

**Tory's pov**

Monday morning. After the weekend I had, I needed a break. Ben moved in with his mom on a "Temporary basis" according to Shelton (who asked a good few annoying questions about what happened with me and ben at the bunker.). Then Sunday I had to have "girl time" with Whitney (the exact definition of torture) who ended the evening by telling me that they had scheduled a tour of the Governor's school. Monday was welcome, at least most of my problems there were ignoring me. Sure Ben was there but I could avoid him, go to the library at lunch, and do some finishing touches on my project, not that that wasn't without its own problems (mostly that I kept thinking about the body). Still at least I wouldn't have to talk to Ben. I knew I probably should but I had no idea what to say _sorry I ran away from you for kissing me when I didn't want you to…_no that wouldn't work because I kind of did want him to? _Sorry I ran away, I wanted you to kiss me… _but I didn't?… ugh! See no conversations. I was putting my general plan for avoiding Ben into action, when a problem I had paid little attention to reared it's, not so ugly, head.

"Tory!" I turned to see Jason. Nearly slapping myself in the forehead, I realized it was far too late to run. Jason was very attractive light hair, tan skin, slim, toned features, most girls would go goo goo over someone like him. Yet his southern charm left me with nothing but a slight pang of grief for the fact that I had no interest in him. He finally reached me and I couldn't quite place the look he wore on his handsome face.

"I'm glad you're all right, I was worried when you didn't text me back." He said looking around to make sure no one was within earshot.

"My phone broke." I said not mentioning how or that I had already received the texts when it did. "What's up? You look kind of freaked out." _Kind of _was an understatement, Jason looked borderline paranoid.

"I need to talk to you, but not here, could you meet me after school? It's really important, I wouldn't bother you if it wasn't." I felt that twinge of guilt get stronger. I hadn't spoken to Jason since I went off on him for asking me to the Deb Ball. He probably thought I hated him, I didn't really want to talk to him after school but I owed him that much at least.

"Sure but I can't stay too long the guys will get worried." I said and a different look crossed Jason's face

"Right we don't want to keep _Ben_ waiting." I noticed the way he said Ben and memories of Saturday morning flooded back. I knew it was stupid but until that moment I hadn't really put the kiss with the argument that came before it, but now what Ben had been saying was obvious and I almost wondered how I didn't notice before. Jason and Ben saw one another as competition, competition for _me_. Don't ask why, but as I realized that concept I found that it annoyed me, I wasn't a competition I was a person! Yet somehow, it also made me kind of happy, and like everything else that had anything to do with ben, puzzled beyond belief.

"I need to go." I said bluntly although I honestly had nowhere _to_ go.

"Of course, I'll see you after school." Jason said, but I was already halfway to the library doors.

I told Shelton to wait on me after school, that I was staying late with a teacher. I know what you're thinking, _bad Tory no lying to your best friends. _But I didn't know what Jason wanted to talk to me about, and I didn't want Ben to get the wrong idea if the information got back to him. _Maybe he should get that idea make him sweat a little. _My annoying inner thoughts stated. _No there is nothing going on between Jason and I and even if there was it wouldn't be any of Ben's business._

The remainder of the day passed slowly with very little of interest happening.

The final bell rang after what felt like hours of not really listening to a lecture on Genetic pedigrees. I left the room quickly before realizing I didn't know where Jason wanted to meet me? Fortunately he found me near the front.

"Hey there you are." He said coming up beside me.

"Yep, so what is this about?" I asked wanting to be done with this as soon as possible.

"Come with me." he said and led me down the halls until we came to a section of the school that seemed completely empty and he stopped.

"Ok, what the heck is going on?"

"It's about Chance." He said. Chance Clayborne was the most attractive, popular, and wealthy boy at Bolton. Now he was in the mental hospital partially because of me (another thing I screwed up big surprise.) I tried to look nonchalant as I said.

"Ok... what about him?"

"I think he has escaped."

**Another Cliffy! Sorry I am trying to get these in as fast as I can I got writers block for a really long time not to mention Exams are next week! It sucks being smart sometimes. Anyway a really hoped you liked it please keep the Reviews coming, 5 if you want the next chapter and 5 for every chapter after that. You guys and girls never disappoint me. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!**

**DFTBA**


	11. Tory and Ben, Drawings and Tar Pits

**Sorry it took so long. But please read and enjoy and tell me honestly what you think.**

**I do not own Virals, but thanks for reading anyway. **

**Tory's POV**

"What?" I asked.

"I know it sounds kind of crazy but I went to see him this weekend and the people acted really weird, they told me I couldn't see him because he was asleep in his room but then I checked his room and he wasn't there but I did find this." He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to me. I unfolded it and gasped, without meaning to I nearly dropped the paper. It was a drawing in colored pencil, of _me _standing on a beach at night_._ It was really good almost professional looking, and it might have seemed flattering if I didn't have bright gold eyes.

"I think you might be in danger." Jason said "this wasn't the only one, most of them were just you, but some were all four of you. You and your friends and all of them had these eyes." I was too surprised to say anything I looked at Jason who looked worried, almost panicked and I knew, I suddenly felt like a total jerk. He was worried about me, when he should probably hate me.

"I'm sure he just didn't want you to see him in the hospital, I don't think they would try that hard to cover it up if he escaped." He looked down, he was disappointed that I didn't believe him. But I hoped that he would just drop it, and to my surprise he did.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Still, promise you'll be careful, if he did get out, he could be dangerous."

"I will, Thanks Jason." He nodded and started to walk away. "And Jason," he turned. "I'm sorry about going off on you."

"It's ok, I get it." he started to walk away again but I grabbed his arm.

"No, you don't, my life is kind of crazy, and I can't really explain, but I was stressed out and I took it out on you. It was mean and stupid and I'm sorry." He gave me a little smile.

"It's all right, I'll see you around." He said and left.

I found Hi at the front entrance of the school. "Where's Shelton?" I asked.

"Went home with Ben." He said as we started toward the docks.

"Oh, how was Ben today? I haven't really had a chance to talk to him?" I lied and yeah I felt kind of bad about it but I was curious.

"Oh yeah, you haven't had a chance." Hi mocked. "I may act like a total goof ball but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you were avoiding him. Still, I think staying after, just so you wouldn't see him, was a little much."

"I didn't… I stayed after to talk to someone." I said.

"Right, who did you talk to? All the teachers are in a meeting." He stopped in front of me. "What happened between you two?" I rolled my eyes and walked around him.

"Ah come on fill a brother in." Hi pleaded. I ignored him.

**Ben's POV**

I hated the ride home from school, no ocean breeze, no semi salty spray, and worst of all no Tory**. **I hadn't been able to see her or talk to her all day. All I had was my mom's "classic rock" on the radio and Shelton sitting silently in the back. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew my mom only did this out of a not completely misguided fear for my safety. However at the moment it was nothing but torture. I shouldn't be here I should be on the island with the Virals. Not in my mom's car wading thru traffic like a swamp… no not like a swamp like a frickin tar pit. The road was so slow compared to the water. I longed to be driving Sewee across the bay.

"So how was school?" Mom asked.

"Fine." I said bluntly putting no effort whatsoever in the lie. Mom must have gotten the point because the rest of the ride was filled only with the best of the 90's.

When the torturous ride finally came to an end Shelton and I made our way silently to my room. Only after the door closed did he speak.

"So nice place" he said with a tone that reflected heavily my since of misplacement, with a hint of sarcasm alluding to the complete bareness of my chambers. At home my room generaly looked like a localized tornado had hit it, I had stuff on the walls, posters (mostly of bands and stuff from movies). Here, however I had a closed closet door and a bed with light blue sheets.

"Yeah great, what did you want to talk about?" I asked trying to get to the point.

"I just wanted to make sure you were ok, you haven't seemed quite right lately and not just with your mom, before that."

"I'm fine." I said but he really didn't seem to believe me.

"Look, I've known you long enough to know I'm not going to get you to say anything you don't want to, but seriously dude, you can trust me and whenever you wanna tell me what's going on with you…"

"I'm fine Shel." I insisted.

"Ok, you wanna play some games or what?" I smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever.

**SORRY! It is taking sooo long I keep getting blocked. Thank you all for the encouragement I did great on my Exam so YAY! And now I have more time. You know the deal with the next chapters I'll be quick as I can promise! Thank you so much for reading give me your suggestions. **

**DFTBA**


	12. Tory and Ben, Nothing and Not tonight

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I would have posted sooner but I just got the fifth review. They were really sweet, but don't be afraid to tell me if there is something that bothers you I do this to be a better writer and I can't do that without your input. Thank you again.**

**I don't own Virals at all.**

**Tory's Pov**

Jason's talk haunted me all the way home. I tried to focus on my homework, but it wasn't going to work and I knew it. Finally, I gave up and pulled out my computer, Typing 'Chance Claybourne' into the search bar. I scrolled thru the options but very few had anything to do with the actual Chance and if they did it was about him and his dad. It took me a while to realize that there was also nothing about the Incident with him, Hannah and us, or their connection to the Katherine Heaton case. I felt as if there was lead in my stomach, and the weight grew heavier as I also looked up 'Hannah Wythe' and 'Charleston Mental facility brake out.' I thought I would fall thru the floor at this point. I know it seems like an overreaction but I couldn't ignore my instincts and they were telling me that this was really _not good. _Not to mention I could never ignore a mystery. I felt around for my phone not looking away from my screen. When my hand brushed it I grabbed it up as fast as I could typing an urgent message but just as I was about to send it I paused. I looked down at the name that never seemed to fail to catch my eye. _Should I text Ben? _I asked myself.

_Of course you should he's a Viral too._

_But what if he asks how I figured this out. What if he goes off on me again? Plus he'll probably want to talk about what happened._

_Well maybe you should talk about it. _ _But even if you don't this concerns him too._

After a short pause I pressed send.

**Ben Pov.**

"Give it up Shellfish! I've got you now!" I exclaimed closing in on him ready to fire. But he made one movement and there was a huge explosion.

"What were you saying Benny boy?" he asked smugly.

"No way you survived that it's a tie." I said, in an attempt to salvage what was left of my pride.

"The game sais I'm alive! I won get over it little boy blue." Shelton joked.

"What did you just call me?" I growled.

"You heard me what you gonna do about it?" he asked and to answer I launched at him pinning him down easily. "Fine, fine, it was a tie. Now get off me."

"I'm glad you came to see reason." I said getting up.

"Well if I hadn't I'm sure your sewer breath would have killed me." We both laughed, and I felt better than I had for days. I was just playing video games and joking around with Shelton. No Worries about my mom, or Virals, or Tory. At least until our phones went off. I caught his eye for a second, just long enough to see the confusion and slight worry in his eye. Generally when we got messages at the same time… well it usually didn't end well. We both flipped out our phones.

**EMERGANCY! Meet B NOW!**

**Tory.**

Immediately my heart started beating faster. My mind skimmed thru scenarios that honestly scared the hell out of me. Tory could be in trouble! All I could think about was that I had to get to her as soon as possible. Then I stopped _Tory wouldn't want to have a Virals meeting if she were in immediate danger. _

"We better go." Shelton said, I immediately reached into my pocket for my boat keys when I remembered two big problems.

"How? I don't have Sewee and my mom isn't gonna let me anywhere near that island." I said.

"Tory says it's an emergency." Shelton said.

"Oh, and how am I supposed to explain that to my mom? Just go up to her and say, 'Hey, Mom, can you take me to the island that you think is turning me into a wild animal, so I can discuss an emergency that probably has something to do with me and my friends being genetically altered, and having super powers. ' am I going to tell her about the murder mystery we solved, or Anne Bonny's Treasure?"

"Just follow my lead." With no time to argue I followed Shelton.

"Hey, um, my parents just texted for me to come home for dinner, they invited Ben too."

"Sorry Shelton, Ben needs to do his homework before it gets too late. I'll drive you home." Mom said. I gave Shelton a look as if to say 'told ya'. He ignored it.

"We were really hoping to finish our game." He said innocently.

"You can see him tomorrow at school; it's too late for me to drive there and back, and then again to pick him up."

"I can take Sewee back." I said, and knew it was a mistake as soon as it came out.

"Not, tonight Ben." Mom said with a slightly harsher tone.

"Fine. I'll talk to you later Shel." I said Shelton looked at me as if I had just turned into a squid with antlers.

"Ben, what about…?" he began but I cut him off.

"We'll finish our game later. I can't go tonight."

"Ok, well we need to get my game." He said grabbing my arm and pulling me up stairs. When we reached my room he closed the door and I started moving the pillows around on my bed.

"What the heck are you doing? We have to get to the bunker." He hissed as I pulled the covers over my pillows and went over to my back pack pulling out a _post it _pad and scribbling some things down.

"Wait here for like two minutes then shut off the lights and stick this on the door on your way out." I said handing him the sticky note and opening the window.

"What are you doing?" he asked as I climbed out to the fire escape.

"Praying this works. And close the window but don't lock it." I said before I dropped down onto the ladder.

**Ben's great escape! So tell me what you thought, the good, the bad, the issues of questionable morality. And please if you like the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare read my other fan fic. I don't get many reviews for it and I need to know if it's worth finishing or not. And for any of my stories don't be afraid to point out my mistakes I'm a big girl I promise I can take it. I also love suggestions, ideas for or about the story, or anything you think might make my writing better. I don't know how well I described the lack of info on the computer, but I'll do better when Tory tells the guys. Five reviews for the next chapter. THANK YOU!**

**DFTBA **


	13. Tory, dinner and lies

**Hey sorry about all that I hate when people post a chapter and it isn't an actual chapter, but I think literary censorship is worse I mean as long as it has a fair warning we should keep our stories. Thanks for the reviews they were amazing and kgorange you have a deal. Thanks so much.**

**Tory's pov**

I put my phone down and closed my laptop, stuffing it and the picture Jason had given me into my bag. I rushed down the steps only to be stopped by Charleston Barbie herself. "Tory honey, where do you think you're running off to? Dinner is almost ready." I thought quickly

"I was going to meet Hi at the beach, I promised I would help him with some homework." I lied.

"Why are you meeting at the beach when he lives right next door?" she said not believing the lie.

"He wanted to get away from his mom for a little while." This lie was more believable Hi was always trying to get away from his mom.

"Well I'm sure they're about to eat dinner too, and your father and I wanted to speak to you."

"I promised…"

"Tory sit down." My father said coming into the room. Reluctantly I did as he said.

"Victoria, is something going on that you haven't been telling us?" dad asked._ They know!_ I thought.

_No…no they couldn't possibly... _"No, nothing I can think of. Why do you ask?" I said.

"Well you've been getting into more than fair amounts of trouble recently, sneaking out a lot, and now you refuse to even think about Governor's School, even though it is a wonderful opportunity."

"So, that's what this is about. I just don't think it's right for me. I just came here I have friends here…"

"Just friends? You and Ben have been getting quite close." Whitney said. Dad leaned over laying a hand on my knee.

"It's ok Tory, you don't need to hide anything from us, Ben is a good young man."

"Ben is my _friend_ that is it!" _unfortunately. _

_Shut up! _

"Tory, I was speaking to Jason's mom she said he asked you to the Debutant ball and you said no." this caught me off guard.

"I already have a date." I blurted before thinking. _Shoot!_

"who?"

"Ben" I said quickly. _Shut up you idiot! _Whitney looked surprised.

"Tory, you know he can't just…"

"The rules say a lady must be escorted to the ball, and that all gentlemen should escort a lady, but it doesn't say they have to go with another Deb. We're just going as friends, because I didn't like Jason and I didn't want to lead him on." I thought quickly.

"Tory it's alright for you to be with Ben…"

"I AM NOT WITH BEN!" I almost yelled. "but since you obviously won't listen to anything I say, I might as well go." I said getting up and nearly running to the door. I was gone by the time they started coming after me.

When I made it to the bunker Hi was already waiting.

"What the heck took you so long?" He said. "I managed to escape my mom run all the way here and catch my breath by the time you showed up. I thought I was going to have to go after you."

"I had to get by Whitney. Have you heard from Shelton?" I asked.

"No. What's so important?" Hi asked looking serious for once.

"I should really tell you all together." I said

"It has something to do with who you met today doesn't it?" he asked I nodded silently. "You just can't stay out of trouble for five minutes, can you?" he asked

**Sorry this one was pretty short but I'll try and do better next time I'm just having a bit of a block right now thank you so much for sticking with me you guys are awesome. 5 reviews again please.**

**DFTBA**


	14. Tory and Ben, Fears and Plans

**Thank you all for your reviews and all your support. This story has had over a thousand hits this month and 130 for the last chapter. That made my day and your reviews make it even better. Thank you all and I'll try to post again as soon as I can.**

**Tory's pov **

I sat on a bench in the bunker Coop's head on my legs, absent mindedly rubbing his ears getting impatient waiting on Shelton and Ben, and rather hungry. Hi sat across from me switching constantly from whistling to tapping his fingers on the table, to making popping noises with his mouth. It annoyed me slightly but at least he wasn't asking a million questions. It seemed like hours before we heard footsteps outside. _Ben_

I jumped to look outside making Coop rather upset. My heart sank slightly when I saw only Shelton. _I thought you didn't want to see Ben? You didn't even want to send him the text._

"Shut up."

"Well someone is rather grumpy today." Shelton said "I wasn't even talking." It took me a second to realize I was talking to my subconscious out loud. _That's it I'm really losing it now._

"Sorry I wasn't really talking to you." I said lamely

"Well who were you talking to the tree over there? It seems real chatty." He said again sarcastically

"Yeah while I was here it just kept going on about your dog peeing on it all the time." Hi added. I shook my head.

"Where's Ben?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"Here!" I turned to see Ben jogging out of the woods and my heart skipped. _There we go. _"Had to make sure mom didn't see me." Hi laid a hand on Ben's shoulder.

"Welcome to my world." he said as Ben shook off the other boy's hand.

"So, what's the emergency?" he asked. Everyone turned to me expectantly. I took a deep breath _here we go._

"Come in and have a seat."

I started by telling them about my conversation with Jason, Ben didn't look very happy but he remained silent. I showed them the picture, then pulled out my computer.

"I was curious so I looked on the computer to see if I could find anything."

"Did you?" Shelton asked.

"Well no, but that's kind of the problem, I looked him up and it's like he ceased to exist right before we fought him and Hannah. There was nothing about his trial or his sentence to the mental hospital."

"But it was like all over the news, and in the news papers." Hi said.

"Most of that didn't talk about him only his dad. I typed in Hannah's name too and anything else that might bring up anything, but it's like they were both wiped away." I explained

"Let me see." Shelton said pulling my computer over to him. Hi moved to look over his shoulder. Ben, however was still and quiet looking straight at me, I looked into his eyes deep within them was something I couldn't quite figure out. Worry? A little but that wasn't all… anger?... no, no I had seen him angry this wasn't the same. Concern? Yeah definitely a little… there was something else, but what was it? _fear._ That was it, the missing thing. But why? Ben was as strong and brave as anyone I had ever met. He would always back me up even when what I was doing seemed completely insane, we went thru so much together and he always seemed untouchable, not cold or far away (well not all the time), but strong and unwavering like nothing could hurt him. So why was he afraid now? He turned his head toward Shelton breaking my gaze.

"So you think Chance might be after you?" He asked still not looking at me.

"No." they all looked up at this. "We know who he is, we know everything he's done he wouldn't go to such measures to hide and Hannah… Well she is being covered too."

"Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with us." Hi said hopefully. "Maybe they ran away together. Maybe they erased all this so that they could make a clean start together." I shook my head.

"I don't think that's it." I said.

"How do we know Chance is even gone, Jason might have just gotten paranoid." Ben said.

"He seemed pretty convinced, and there's also the fact that so much about him is missing. Still, there's only one way to find out for sure."

All three of them looked up at me. "NO!" Hi and Shelton said together.

"Well you guys don't have to go, I'm sure I could…"

"There's no way you're doing it alone! Who knows what kind of trouble you could get yourself into." Ben Interrupted definitively.

"Ok so Ben and I can go and Shelton and Hi can go search thru newspaper articles at the library." I said. Shelton and Hi looked at each other.

"That'll work." They said simultaneously.

Ok we'll go this Friday.

**Ben's pov.**

Ben had a horrible feeling about this. Something was really wrong here, but what bothered Ben most was the picture. It terrified him to think that someone could be after Tory. _You don't know that they're after her. Chance probably isn't even gone Jason probably just wanted attention, or to look like a hero for Tory. _Even with how much he hated Jason, Ben couldn't believe he would do that. another scary thought entered his mind.

_Tory was going to go to that mental hospital alone. _He thought. He could never let her do that, no matter how stupid it seemed to break into the nut house again.

_Why do you keep letting her get to you like that? No matter what she says you just have to go along with it. Why can't you just say NO?_

_Because I know her. _I answered myself. _Because she's so stubborn, she would only get in more trouble if I say no and she ends up doing it by herself._

_True. Wait, am I actually having a argument with myself? This girl is gonna stomp out every bit of sanity I have isn't she?_

"I'm gonna keep working on this." Shelton said "But I should probably get home." With that he stood and closed the lap top handing it over to Tory.

"Me too my mom is gonna go nuts, I'm never late for a meal." Hi half joked. He followed Shelton out, I moved to go with them but Tory caught my arm.

**Ok, I would have made it longer but I figured I should split it up so I could post again. Also I don't know how good this one was I'm trying to do better every time (Reviews help me with this). In case you check my profile and you don't see it I have removed my other story for lack of interest, sorry if any of you actually liked it. I've got a few other ideas so I might add another story later but for now I'm gonna focus on this and my independent writing. PLEASE tell me what you think. I need reviews to help hone my writing skills. Thank You All so much for the support. **

**DFTBA **


	15. Tory and Ben, favors and horrible dreams

**I do not own Virals. **

**Sorry about the typo's in the last chapter I have been working on a story of my own and it is in third person so I got kind of messed up, and I proofread it while half asleep.** **Sorry again and thanks for pointing those out. And about the length of my chapters, I always go for 1000 words but I end it wherever it feels right, or when I just can't work out what to do next. Sorry if they end up being too short. I had to cut this one off where I did because I need to figure out how to explain exactly what is happening. You readers have been amazing and you really inspire my work. Thank you all so much! Now I'll shut up and get on with the story.**

**Tory's pov.**

"Um Ben, can you hold on a second." I asked trying (and failing) to sound neutral.

"Ok, what's up?" he asked. _Crud! Now what do I do? Do I try and talk about what happened Saturday? _"Um, Tory?" he interrupted my thoughts.

"Can I ask you for a favor?" I asked quickly. _Ok so we're avoiding Saturday again I'm sure this will turn out well._

"Will this 'favor' get me arrested, or killed?" I couldn't help but smile at this.

"No… well probably not." I said, he nodded for me to continue. "Well, see I was talking… well arguing… well kind of yelling at Whitney; she wanted to know why I turned Jason down for the deb ball thing, and I kind of… well I may have…"

"Tory spit it out." Ben said impatiently.

"I told her I was going with you." I pushed the words from my mouth. Ben just stared down at me so of course I started rambling, "It would just be as friends, and you know it might not be so bad.. and my only other choice is Jason…"

"I'll do it." he interrupted me, and I stared at him in shock. I thought I would have to beg and plead to get him to agree.

"Really?" I asked.

"yeah my mom wants me to act more normal anyway, and I know how much you hate going to those things alone…" before he could finish I exploded wrapping my arms around his neck exclaiming,

"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" he froze for a moment and I realized how crazy I was acting. Letting him go and blushing a little, but I could still feel the excitement coursing thru my veins. "You are the best friend EVER!"_ more than that really. _

_Shut up you stupid brain! _Ben gave me a tiny smile, "I'm gonna have to wear a tux aren't I?" he joked. Though honestly I didn't care what he wore, I thought about Whitney and nodded yes. (She already didn't like the idea, best not make it any worse.)

"I'm sure Whitney can get something for you." I said smiling broadly.

"Ok, well I should probably get back before my mom notices that I'm gone. Otherwise I might be too grounded to go." For a second I didn't understand then I remembered what he said when he showed up_. He must have snuck out_.

"Right I wouldn't want you to get in trouble because of me." I said quickly. "Not that it would be anything new." I added in an afterthought. Something flashed across his face but it was gone as soon as I noticed.

"Yeah." He started to turn away but spun back again quickly. "Oh, and Tory." I looked up giving him my attention. "Just… be careful whatever is going on with Chance… I just have a bad feeling about it."

"I will, thanks Ben." I said, Jason gave me that same advice, but somehow when Ben said it, it made my heart flip a little. _He's being protective, you like that. _I didn't argue this time because as he walked away I realized it was really true. Having Ben around always made me feel a little better, because no matter how he acted most of the time, he always looked out for me. When he was there I felt safe.

**Ben's pov.**

_It was close to midnight and the courtyard was still and silent, the air around me heavy and solid, the world around me shattered with a sudden scream. _

"_BEN!" the voice resonated all around me. "BEN!" It came again. I knew the voice, I knew it better than any I had ever heard, and it sent my heart racing away and adrenalin pumping thru my veins. "TORY!" I called out in shear panic. "TORY! Where are you!" _

"_Ben! I'm here, I'm here, _BEN_!" I followed the sound to the cart behind the jail. "Help me! Ben, please _help me_!" Her voice dripped fear, like blood; her screams pounded in my ears, the most horrible sound I had ever heard in my life. My heart pounded my ribs until they ached straining to hold against the battery. I ripped the doors off the cart and fell back at the sight. A body, mostly decomposed, with fiery red hair. _

I jolted to a sitting position soaked with sweat, feeling as if a knife had ripped into my chest, and pulled out its contents, leaving me unable to breath; as if a hammer had been taken to my head, more than a few times; and as if my stomach was a volcano, ready to erupt. I sprang out of bed and barely made it to the sink in time. As I was washing the vomit down the drain, I heard a voice.

_Ben what the hell is going on!_ At first I thought this to be a remnant of the dream but as I looked into the mirror and was met with glowing golden eyes, I realized the voice had come from inside my head, however it felt as if it originated somewhere else, a sensation that was becoming increasingly familiar.

_Tory! _I thought with sudden glee.

_Yeah it's me. What's happening, what's wrong? _She sounded near panic

_She's alive. _I thought without meaning to.

_Of course I am! Ben, what the hell is happening? _I avoided berating myself for that thought, knowing she would hear it.

_Nothing! _ I thought quickly _It was just a bad dream_… _wait why are you in my head?_

_I don't know. _She thought back to me. _I woke up feeling horrible hearing you screaming for me. I thought you were in trouble, you sounded horrified. _

_But you must have started it. _I thought Tory was the only one who could just think to us, and from what she said it took effort.

_I don't think I did, I have to go thru this process to get the connection. Usually you all have to be pretty close by, and I have to hear all of you at the same time. Right now I only hear you. _

_But if it wasn't you then how are we doing this? _It was silent for a second.

_I have no idea. _

**Ok, so that first part took some effort but Ben's just kind of flowed, and I have to admit that can usually go one of two ways, it was either really sloppy and difficult to follow, or it worked and it was actually good. I'm really hoping for the later, but don't be afraid to tell me if it was the first or if anything didn't make since. Please tell me what you thought of this, and does anyone know if the other Virals can hear each other when tory talks to them in her mind? Please comment, Thank you!**

**DFTBA**


	16. Ben and Tory Cover up and Stress

**I do not own Virals as much as I wish I did. **

**Ben's pov.**

Once the flair had passed and I started to recuperate I finally looked at the clock 5:49. _Wonderful, no time to go back to bed. _ I laid still on my bed for about half an hour before my phone started to ring. I groaned and picked it up.

**Dad**

"Hello?" I answered groggily.

"Ben." my father's voice sounded on the other end. "Ben, I have some bad news…" he trailed off waiting for my reaction.

"What?" I asked.

"Well it seems _Sewee _is missing." _Agh! I almost forgot about that. _After I talked to Tory I took the only rout home I could, my boat. Unfortunately, I didn't think about my dad noticing that. _You know you can be a real idiot Blue._ I thought to myself.

"Umm… Yeah about that…" I started.

"Ben. Honestly…" my dad said trying to sound upset but I could still hear a smile in his voice. "Well I suppose you don't want your mother to find out about this."

"Yeah, that would be preferable." I said.

"I won't tell her, if you'll promise me one thing."

"Ok, name it." I said.

"Promise me you won't do anything stupid, I know your mom can be kind of… well… difficult to deal with at times, but she loves you. She just wants you to be safe." I carefully studied my hands. _If only I could tell them, make them understand that I'm not like other kids, tell them the things we Virals have done… but then that would probably only worry them more. I knew that my parents wanted to protect me, but living a normal life no matter how preferable it might be at times, just wasn't right for me. thanks to the wonky virus that ran thru my veins my life would never be normal, and no one but the other Virals could ever understand. _

"I promise Dad." I said. Knowing that I might well be lying.

"Ok, get ready for school, I'll talk to you later." With that the phone went silent. I fell back on my pillows.

**Tory's Pov.**

The other Virals and I waited for Ben on the steps at Bolton. I did my best to hide my worry so that neither Shelton nor Hi saw it, but I was worried about Ben. The way he had called out to me that morning, he sounded past horrified, past panic. I could still hear the scream in my mind. My name in a scream filled with terror and _grief_. I knew that was what it was. I felt like screaming that same way when the police told me mom was dead, and at the funeral, and every time I've thought of her since. That scream was one you would use to call someone from the dead. It was a scream so loud it could breach the barriers between life and death; filled with pain, sadness and fear. And he was screaming for me. Whatever happened in that dream; he thought I was dead, and that terrified him.

"You look awful." Hi said, as Ben finally made his way up the steps. He rolled his eyes and retorted in annoyance.

"Thank you, your insight is worth as much as gold." He stated sarcastically.

"Well who peed in your cereal this morning?" Hi asked.

"your mom didn't find out about you sneaking out last night did she?" Shelton asked.

"No, just didn't sleep to well. I'm fine." _Yeah like I'd believe that for a second_ I thought. I needed to talk to him but from the way he was acting I knew he didn't want to discuss it with the others right now. _What makes you think he wants to talk to you about it? _

_Doesn't matter he's going to. Just not right now. _I caught his eye for just a second, and saw the effects of that stupid dream. He looked a little sick, his face paler, dark lines under his eyes, but the real evidence was hidden within those deep chocolate eyes. They were tired they showed that he was far more exhausted then you could see anywhere else. The bell erupted making him turn away.

"Better get to class." Shelton said and all three boys started to walk away.

"Ben." I said making him stop, "Are you sure you're all right."

"I'm fine Tor, get to your class, we'll talk later." I held his gaze for just a moment, then turned and made my way to English.

The day went by like slow torture English wasn't horrible but it was boring allowing my mind to wander and today that was not what I needed. Chemistry was horrible as my teacher well meaning as she may have been, just had to brag on me for my invitation to governor's school giving the preps even more material for insults that were far more annoying than hurtful (luckily the tripod was still avoiding me for the most part). History with Hi was pretty normal however I found it quite difficult to focus on the Columbian Exchange, when my friends, and I could be in danger and Ben was having bad dreams about my death. Finally the bell rang for lunch.

"Finally!" Hi said falling into step beside me. "I am starving! Look at me I'm being reduced to nothing but skin and bones." Hi said pinching his arm for emphasis. "Ok. Seriously what is with you today? You've been acting like you're at a funeral since this morning, and you haven't laughed at one of my jokes. Is this another thing with Ben?" he said.

"Why would you think this had something to do with Ben?" I asked more sharply than I intended.

"Because you two have more drama than Leo and Piper off _Charmed_." I didn't get the reference but I knew it was pretty bad.

"You need to watch less T.V." I stated "And not everything is about Ben. I'm just a little stressed out that's all."

"But part of it is about Ben!" he stated triumphantly. "Why can't you two just get together like normal teenagers, and get over all this crazy back and forth stuff." I stopped and stared at Hi. "What?" he asked.

"There's nothing going on between me and Ben." I insisted. Hi groaned.

"How long are you two gonna keep this up? It's obvious you two have it bad for each other."

"I… I don't…" I stammered.

"Fine live in denial. I'm going to get in line before they run out of chicken nuggets. I just stood there for a while. _Was it really that obvious?_

_It doesn't matter right now you have bigger fish to fry. _I told myself and started toward the lunch room.

**Ok that wasn't my best work I'll admit but I'm working thru a bit of a block with this right now, and I'm working on some things of my own so I'll do better next time. Please review anyway and I'll get the next one in ASAP. Your reviews are great and they inspire me to keep going. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!**

**DFTBA**


	17. Ben, realizations and coincidences

**Ok, sorry these take so long but it is difficult to reach this high level of adequacy. Thank You all so much for your reviews.**

**I own nothing. So… on that rather depressing note here you go please enjoy. **

**Ben's Pov.**

School went by like traffic when I rode with my mom. A lot of things seemed like that recently. I still had a head ache and was a little nauseous, but the worst thing was that I couldn't close my eyes without seeing the last scene of that stupid dream.

_Cut it out Blue that wasn't real Tory is fine and you are really starting to lose it. _I thought to myself then realized that I wasn't starting to lose it. I had already lost it, it started the second I saw those emerald green eyes and it got worse every second I was with her, and every time I thought about her. Even if he was nothing but a friend to her he couldn't change that. I did my best to just focus on my work until the lunch bell finally rang. I found Shelton and asked him to tell Tory to meet me in the library then headed that way myself. Only to be stopped by Val.

"Hay Ben." she said "Aren't you going to lunch?"

"Umm, I was just headed to the library to do some research." I said.

"Oh, I heard what happened at the jail the other night. The police are trying to keep it quiet but word travels pretty fast among the guides, did you really find a body?"

"Yeah… well I guess technically Tory did. I was just kind of, there." She looked down.

"Right, you were with _Tory_…" she said.

"Yeah, she was doing this report on the history of the Jail and…" she interrupted me.

"You like her, don't you?" she asked.

"Well yeah she's like my best friend." I said.

"No, you _really _like her."

"Oh… I um…" I started.

"I thought so, I guess I just kind of hoped…"

"Oh…" I said realizing what she meant. "I… I'm sorry…" I said not knowing what else to say.

"Don't be. I can see why you would like her. She's pretty and smart…"

"Wait," I said realizing something. "What did you mean the police were trying to keep it quiet?" I asked.

"well I don't know the whole story but these men in black guys came in and started interrogating everybody, then told us not to talk to anyone about it. It was really weird." She finished.

"They questioned you?" I asked.

"Yeah they asked all kinds of weird questions some about you and Tory, even some about Chance and Hannah. Then when I asked what they had to do with it they said things like 'we can't discuss an ongoing investigation.' And 'just checking all possibilities.' If you ask me I think they're covering something up." she said _Ok there is no way this is all just coincidence, I've got to talk to Tory. _I thought.

"Right thanks, um I gotta' go I'll talk to you later, ok?" I didn't wait for an answer instead I walked as fast as I could without getting called out for it by a teacher, to the library. I made it there well before Tory sitting and waiting at a table pretending to read some book with a sword on the front.

"Are the tales of king Arthur written upside down or are you just practicing a new skill?" I looked up to find Tory motioning towards the book. I looked at it and found that I was so out of it that I didn't notice all the words being upside down.

"Right well you never know when you're gonna' have to read something upside down." I said sarcastically and she smiled making my heart flop around again. Unfortunately the smile only lasted a second before the same look of concern she gave me this morning returned to her face.

"Aren't you gonna eat anything?" she asked as she sat down her own food.

"I'm not really that hungry." I said, although honestly I was just hoping to avoid pukeing on my Spanish notes. This only made her look more worried.

"What's wrong Ben? What was that dream about? And how did you end up contacting me?" she asked in a hushed tone.

"I'm fine Tory, it was just a bad dream, and I have no idea how I contacted you but that doesn't matter right now. I was just talking to…"

"Doesn't matter?" she interrupted me a little too loudly making the librarian hush her. She looked over at the cranky woman for only a moment before sitting next to me and leaning closer to whisper. "You were screaming my name you sounded completely mortified, you thought I was _dead, _and then you say it doesn't matter?" she looked at me for a moment worry filling her emerald eyes leaving me speechless. "You're clearly not feeling well so maybe that 'bad dream' triggered some new viral… symptoms. If that is the case then we need to figure them out before they end up getting us into trouble again."

"Well we can't exactly go flaring in here now can we. Trust me I want to figure out this new power as much as anyone else but right now we might just have some bigger problems." For a moment I could see in her eyes that she was fighting herself trying to decide whether to keep pushing or not.

"Fine but we're not thru with this, what have you got?"

"I was talking to Val and she said…"I started.

"Wait who is Val?" she asked.

"She's in my grade she works at _Bull Dog tours."_ I thought I saw something flash across Tory's face but it passed and I chalked it up to my imagination. "She said that there were these men, asking a lot of questions about Chance and Hannah." Her eyes widened but she remained silent. "But, not just them Val said they were also asking questions about _us._"

"Us? Why would they ask about us?" she echoed my thoughts when I first heard.

"I don't know, Val said they would avoid it every time she asked. But whoever these people are they don't want anyone talking about the body. I don't think all this is just coincidence." Tory rubbed her forehead.

"Ok well we're still going to see about chance maybe I can talk to Jason again see if anything weird is going on with the police. Maybe he's heard something from his dad." The mention of Jason made my skin crawl. Even if Tory didn't really like him like that, just the idea of them being together made me want to bite his head off. I tried to hide this of course, focusing on the more troubling matters he already had to deal with.

**Ok then, Thanks for reading please tell me what you think. Thank you all so much for all the support and everything you people are awesome!**

**I would really like suggestions for nerves habits for the main characters, so if there is anything you noticed from the books or something you think one of them would do then let me know in reviews especially for Coop I feel as if I may be neglecting one of the most awesome characters. **

**DFTBA**


	18. Tory, Athletes and Agents

**I am sooooooooo soooooooo soooooooo sorry this one took so long. I had two weeks of Band camp and a bit of a block (not a good combo). But I hope I got this one right. I may not be the fastest writer but I am trying. **

**I am not Kathy Richs although if I was this would come out a hack of a lot better and faster (again sorry) **

**Tory's pov.**

After the final bell rang I went all around the school finally finding Jason in the science wing.

"Jason!" I called he turned seeing me and waving, he said something to the group he was talking to then came over to me.

"Hey Tory, what's up?" he asked.

"Hi, I… um I…" I searched for the right words, before finally deciding to just spit it out. "Ok, have you heard about the body at the old city jail?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah my dad told me what happened, that must have been scary." He said

"I guess… I was wondering if you had heard anything about who it was. There hasn't been anything on the news or… anything." I said praying not to sound suspicious.

"No, I haven't heard anything the only thing I ever seem to hear now is how the feds keep stepping on his toes." He said.

"Feds?" I asked.

"Yeah, FBI I think, they just swooped in and took over that case and some other one, Dad can't stop griping about it. He keeps saying that it seems like the only thing they do is get in the way of the people who are trying to do their jobs. And they keep asking to bring people in who already gave statements, it's all pretty weird." He finished and I was about to ask something else when one of his friends, Dylan, came up beside him.

"Dude come on, if we're late the coach is gonna kill us for sure." He then turned to me. "You'll have to excuse him…" he pulled out the m as if trying to think of something.

"Tory." Jason finished for him. "Her name is Tory."

"Right! I thought it started with a T." he said. Jason rubbed his forehead.

"Sorry about him, I'll talk to you later, ok?" He asked, I nodded, and he and his buddy walked away.

I found Hi and Shelton at the front steps of the school.

"What took you so long?" Hi asked "if we don't hurry up, we'll have to swim home."

"Sorry I had to speak with someone." I said hurrying along with them.

"Please tell me you weren't making deals with the devil or something, that never works out well, just ask Jack Sparrow." Hi said.

"Wait I thought he made a deal with Davy Jones not the devil." Shelton said.

"Same thing really." Hi said. I ignored the Pirates of the Caribbean themed comments.

"I just needed to talk to someone, not everything I do is an insane adventure you know." I defended.

"Yeah maybe, but you've gotta admit moost of it is." Shelton said. I rolled my eyes and punched his shoulder. "Hey!" he protested "Watch the fist of fury rocky." This only made me laugh and roll my eyes again.

"Dude, stop stealing my thunder! Random pop culture jokes are my domain!"

"I do apologize profusely your wittiness." Shelton said with a fake bow.

"Well I suppose you can be forgiven just don't do it again." Hi said. I laughed at them both allowing myself to forget all our crazy problems for a moment and just hang out with my Virals. Still there was an obvious hole in the joy as I wished we were all together again. It just wasn't the same without Ben rolling his eyes and avoiding a laugh, only to eventually give in to a half smile.

**Saturday.**

I woke at 8 am and immediately texted the Virals to confirm our plan. Hi and Shelton would be sleuthing in the library, and Ben and I would go check on Chance. Great plan, unfortunately our plans never quite go to… you know… plan. I picked up the least spoiled fruit we had and took one bite before the doorbell rang.

"Tory gets that, will you?" My dad's voice came from upstairs, yelling over coopers exited announcements of a visitor. Clearly it wasn't one of the Virals or Whitney, Coop had his own special way of greeting each of them. For Whitney he barked twice then sat mincingly. For the other Virals he would bark and wag his tail franticly.

"Hello?" I asked opening the door just enough to look at the person behind it. It was a woman, early thirties maybe, 5'9", dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and a thin figure. Dressed in a business suit that had to be killing her this early in September around here.

"Victoria Brennan?" she asked. I nodded opening the door enough for coop to get out and sniff around the woman's feet before sitting between us daring her to get any closer to me. "I'm Agent Sarah Sharp FBI" she showed me her badge. Coop watching closely. "I'd like you to come with me and answer a few questions about the body you found last week." I didn't like that. Dad came up behind me,

"What's this about? Tory already gave a statement to the police." He said.

"You must be Mr. Brennan, We just need for Victoria to answer some follow up questions."

"And she has to go with you for this?" dad asked critically.

"You are more than welcome to join us Mr. Brennan. We shall be meeting Benjamin Blue and his mother at the office." Alarm bells rang franticly in my head but I ignored them. _Why would they want us both? Could these be the people Jason was talking about?_

"And if we refuse?" I asked.

"A lot of paper work for me and a few headaches for everyone else involved in the end I assure you, you will answer our questions eventually."

"Are you threatening my daughter?" Kit asked harshly stepping directly between us. beside coop who was growling softly. She didn't react to any of this.

"I do not wish to threaten anyone. I know it's rather inconvenient, but I want to get thru this and let you all go back to your everyday business just as soon as possible." Agent Sharp said as if the comment hardly fazed her.

"That's ok we'll go." I said stepping out from behind Kit. "A few questions won't hurt me." Kit looked at me and I nodded to reassure him that I was confidant in what I was doing. "Coop, heel." Coop looked up at me then back at agent Sharp giving her one more snarl for good measure before sitting at my side.

"Thank you Miss Brennan." She said.

"All right, give us a few minutes to get ready then we'll follow you to your office." Agent sharp smiled, clearly understanding that my dad was insuring that we only cooperate on our terms.

"Of course, take all the time you need." Dad closed the door and looked at me critically.

"Are you sure you're ok with this?" he asked.

"Yeah." I lied.

"Fine go get dressed." I did. Opening a chat with the Virals on my phone while I was at it.

_AlphaWolf: (Tory) change of plans guys. _

**Well I hope that sounds half as good to you as it did in my head. Looks like an interesting twist. Again I am so sorry about that I will post the next soon. School is starting up and I have a lot of band practice but I'll find the time I promise. Still I need your help. Your reiews always encourage me to keep it up. Thank you all so much! Anything that you think could be better please tell me.**

**DFTBA **


	19. Chatroom changed plans and scooby snacks

**Ok again sorry these are taking so long, I'm stupid busy and I know this one is a little short but it's just the chat room from when Tory and Ben are on their way to the FBI offices. I tried to add in a little more comedy this time since it's not really a "storyline" chapter and I figure the Virals definitely can't be too serious. **

**Obviously I am not Kathy Richs and Virals does not belong to me. **

**I think you can figure out who is who so I'm not just gonna type it flat out. Sorry if there are any grammatical errors I stink at that stuff.**

_AlphaWolf: Change of plans._

_Larryduckableguy: Y does this make me nervous?_

_Techdoctor: Y is there a random black Mazda outside your house?_

_Lilboiblue: Shellfish I'm gonna kill you!_

_Techdoctor: so violent._

_Lilboiblue: I can't get it to change back! I swear you're a dead geek._

_Techdoctor: and rude too, not a very attractive trait. Am I right Tory?_

_AlphaWolf: Guys! Can we focus 4 a minute? Ben have you talked to an FBI agent today?_

_Lilboiblue: Yeah he's taking me and my mom to his office right now. How did u know?_

_AlphaWolf: There's one here too. She said we would be meeting you. _

_Larryduckableguy: FBI? What the heck do they want? They aren't gonna lock you guys up in a secret underground lab where they'll run horrible tests on you, then attempt to dissect you alive are they? _

_Techdoctor: If they were I doubt they would take them in broad daylight with their parents. _

_Larryduckableguy: That is exactly what they want you to think!_

_AlphaWolf: The point is Ben and I probably won't get anywhere near the hospital today._

_Techdoctor: Then we'll do it some other time?_

_Alphawolf: but we need to know where he is. _

_Larryduckableguy: NO WAY!_

_Alphawolf: Come on all u have to do is scope it out. PLEASE!_

_Techdoctor: No, nine, non, NO!_

_Larryduckableguy: Not even for a Scooby snack!_

_Lilboiblue: a what?_

_Larryduckableguy: our poor depraved young Benjamin. _

_Lilboiblue: whatever duck boy._

_Laryduckableguy: it's Larry, duck, able, guy… come on somebody must get it!_

_Alphawolf: Seriously guys! We need to figure out what we're gonna do!_

_Techdoctor: Well there is no way I am going to that nut house._

_Larryduckableguy: How would we even get there anyway?_

_Alphawolf: Shelton just got his license right?_

_Techdoctor: yeah but I'm not allowed to go anywhere without telling my parents first._

_Alphawolf: You already told them you were going to the library with Hi right? _

_Techdoctor: You know it is truly terrifying the way you pull things together._

_Larryduckableguy: Well I'm still not going._

_Alphawolf: In that case, I might just have to talk to your mom about the time you lied about being too sick to go to temple, so that you could play video games with Shelton. _

_Larryduckableguy: You wouldn't dare._

_Alphawolf: you wanna test that? It will be fine you just need to get in check whether or not he is there and then get out. _

_Techdoctor: and what's in it for me?_

_Alphawolf: I'll make sure Ben doesn't kill you the next time he sees you._

_Techdoctor: Fine_

_Larryduckableguy: I hate you (I am, reluctantly, in.)_

_Alphawolf: I knew you'd come around. _

_Larryduckableguy: That smile is full of evil. _

_Alphawolf: Just stick to the plan Ben and I came up with and you'll be fine._

_Techdoctor: fine, I'm gonna log off now before you talk me into jumping into a volcano._

_Techdoctor signed off._

_Larryduckableguy: me too. Kirk out._

_Larryduckableguy signed off._

_Lilboiblue: So what does the FBI want with us? _

_Alphawolf: I guess we'll find out soon enough. _

**Ok so I'm really not so good at txt talk ether so… sorry. I'll try and post again a.s.a.p. but like I said before I'm insanely busy and the only reason I finished this chapter is because I got bronchitis and am at this moment bed ridden. Still I hope to get more time soon. **

**Review contest:**

**First one to tell me what screen name matches with what character and the best new screen name for Ben wins! (and by wins I mean you get nothing but a brief mention in these parts that few people read and bragging rights.)**

**THANK YOU AND,**

**D.F.T.B.A.!**


	20. Ben, murdered and reaction

**I don't own Virals**

**Review contest winner: The One You Never Suspected, the screen names were,**

**Alphawolf: Tory**

**Lilboiblue: Ben**

**Larryduckableguy: Hi, and **

**Techdoctor: Shelton**

**And the nickname she gave was lonsomeandblue, kind of works don't you think.**

**Sorry this took forever so I won't hold you up any longer please enjoy!**

**Thank you for the reviews **

Ben:

The FBI office was far less interesting then one might imagine. Mom and I got there almost twenty minutes before Tory and Mr. Brenan did. Tory came in and it was clear she hadn't really had time to completely detangle all of her crazy red hair, as it was pulled up into a messy bun. Still she acted fully awake and confident, it was only when I looked into her Emerald eyes that I could see how worried she was. It was amazing how Tory could act when she needed to. She was a little, pale, freckle faced, red head, who had been thru enough to drive anyone into complete paranoia or some other type of insanity, standing in the middle of a room filled with no one she knew or particularly trusted except her, less than physically impressive, father and myself (although her confidence in me is surely a little iffy at this point); yet she stood there as if she were perfectly fine and nothing in the world could change that. Only someone who knew her well enough to catch her little nervous habits would be able to tell. The way her eyes went around the room slowing slightly to look at people but escape routes (a necessary habit for her I'm sure, and certainly a useful one), the way her hand touched her phone and the sunglasses constantly perched on her head, checking that she had them, and the way that she came silently, but slightly more quickly than usual, strait to me. We locked eyes for a second silently communicating making sure neither of us was gonna freak out on the other (although this was highly unlikely). A woman came and introduced herself to my mom and me, saying her name was agent Sharp, and asking Tory and I to follow her.

"We should be there as well…" my mom attempted to protest, but Agent Sharp interrupted.

"We will be right there in my office," she pointed to an open windowed office that would allow mom to watch the interrogation without having to hear it. "I cannot of course forbid you from coming as well, however I believe this will go far more smoothly if it were just Victoria, Benjamin, and myself." My mom and Tory's Dad both started to argue but Tory and I looked at them to tell them it was alright. "and of course Agent Drake," she said motioning toward the man who brought mom and I here. "Would like to ask both of you some questions and it would be much easier to do both at the same time."

"Fine but I better be able to see them both the whole time." Mr. Brenan said. My mom of course had to be more difficult.

"There is no way I am going to allow you to interrogate my son without me…." I stopped her.

"Mom it'll only take a minute and this way we can all get out of here faster." She didn't look happy but eventually she nodded. Tory and I followed her to the office; she told us to take a seat and closed the door behind us. I would be lying if I said this didn't make me suspicious I found myself quickly checking the distance between the FBI woman and Tory. It wasn't that I didn't trust the woman… well actually it was exactly that. When it came to strangers being around Tory, I figured I had good reason to be cautious. She sat down in her chair behind the desk.

"So, I imagine you both know what this is about." She said pleasantly. This only made me more nervous.

"You said it was about the body." Tory said rather pointedly.

"Good we're all on the same page. Now can you recount the events from that evening?"

"Like the whole thing or just the part where we found the body." Tory asked.

"Just the part with the body for now." She said.

"We already told the police what happened." I said.

"Yes and that is written right here, but I find firsthand accounts far more informative." I did not like the way she said any of that but before I could say anything else I caught a look from Tory that made me close my mouth without letting out another sound.

"Well…" Tory started, "we were outside and I thought I smelled something weird, so we started looking around and as we got closer the smell got stronger and then we opened the wagon and she was just…there."

"She?" Agent Sharp asked.

"It looked like a girl." Tory explained clearly not willing to elaborate. The woman nodded.

"And why were the two of you outside?" she asked.

"I got a migraine. So we went outside for me to get some fresh air."

"Do you get these type of migraines often?"

"Kind of, my dad says they're probably from stress or something." She answered but we both knew that wasn't even close to true.

"And you said you could smell it?"

"Yeah I have a pretty good since of smell." Tory said. _Only if being able to smell emotions and every other tiny thing on earth counted as pretty good._

"What about you Benjamin?"

"It's Ben," I corrected, "and what about me?"

"Did you smell this too?"

"Only after we started looking for it." I said.

"And after you discovered the body? What did you do then?"

"I kind of freaked out, we didn't really do anything."

"The file here says that the older woman, Mrs. Farr, found the two of you embracing." It was more of a statement than a question, and to say that it caught me off guard would be a strong understatement. Clearly it took Tory off guard as well because she started stammering and her cheeks began their attempt to match her hair.

"Like she said it freaked us out. Neither of us could really think strait we hadn't seen anything like that before." I said stopping Tory's stammering from becoming a full on jazz scat. As she began to focus on the seem of her shirt.

"We all know that isn't completely true Mr. Blue, according to this just last year the two of you along with a Hiram Stolowitzki and a Shelton Devers discovered the body of Katharine Heaton, and another body last summer in tunnels below the city." Tory and I stared at her. "Don't give me that look, this is the federal government we like to keep an eye on things especially when teenagers discover bodies in locations at which they were never meant to be. It seems the two of you cannot avoid such occurrences."

"Well what don't you have in your little files?" I asked becoming agitated.

"The reasoning you hold for not immediately contacting the police." She said bluntly.

"It was my fault," Tory said Agent Sharp raised an eyebrow. "when I saw the body it… it freaked me out it didn't look like a pile of bones it still looked human…" she was clearly attempting to steady her voice but it wasn't really working, "I froze up and I couldn't really think, Ben was trying to calm me down." Honestly I was just as freaked as she was but I couldn't say anything before agent Sharp spoke.

"So you froze up because the body looked human, did you recognize it?" at first I didn't understand what she asked but then it hit me.

"It looked like a girl that used to go to school with me." Tory said clearly not wanting to lie.

"The body you found has been identified as Hannah Wythe." Tory suddenly went even paler than usual her eyes far away and unfocused. I felt my heart sink and my stomach tighten. The agent continued though obviously noted our reaction. "According to this she attempted to kill the two of you and some of your friends."

"What happened to her?" Tory asked so quietly I barely heard.

"We think she may have been kidnapped, according to the report the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the back of the head it seems she was tied up shot and placed in the cart where the two of you found. Time of death was approximated to be 3 weeks ago." At this point Tory had become a ghost looking as if she might be sick. I wanted so badly to comfort her, to pull her into my arms and promise it would be ok, but I didn't I just sat in shock. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that but I think the two of you should know. I must say I am surprised at your reactions most of the time when I tell someone the person who tried to kill them is dead they refuse to be upset, some are even relieved, however you seem quite broken up about it, some might think this to be a sign of guilt." To my surprise Tory stood up before I did knocking the chair out from under her slamming her hands onto Agent Sharp's desk.

"HOW DID YOU EXPECT US TO REACT!?" she all but screamed. "You just told us that a girl was _murdered_! Tied up and shot with no way of defending herself then dumped somewhere like a pile of trash! She was just a kid! I don't care what the hell she did. Nobody, NOBODY deserves that! And don't you EVER for a second try and blame me or my friends for that!" she finished with tears streaming down her cheeks. I stood up and placed my hand over hers, immediately I felt something surge thru me, and I knew why she was so pale, she was using everything she had to fight back a Flair.

_Get me out of here! _I heard her voice in my mind I looked at her again. She just spoke to me telepathically, but her eyes were normal. I didn't have time to think about that though I knew she couldn't hold it off much longer. I grabbed her around the shoulders and pulled her back, her father barged in I felt her fight fail and the flair overtake her she shut her eyes tight.

"What is going on in here!? Tory are you ok?"

_There's a bathroom to the right. _She thought to me, I still had no idea how I could hear her when I wasn't flaring, but that was a problem for another time.

"Talk to her!" Tory ordered as we pushed past him and my mom who was doing her best to stop us but we got to a one toilet little bathroom and I slammed the door and locked it. Tory immediately bent over the sink vomiting then slipped to her knees on the tile floor. I knelt beside her rubbing her back.

"I'm sorry Ben, I just couldn't stop it."

"I know, it isn't your fault."

"But it is, it's all my fault." I felt my heart split open, how could she blame herself for this it was that stupid FBI woman's fault not hers. Then I realized she might not just be talking about the flair.

**Ok so that kind one kind of got a mind of its own at the end and I'm really not sure how it went so someone better tell me. sorry again that it took so long but I hardly have any free time anymore so it's hard to write this one was pretty long too (well about 5 or 600 words more than usual) so hopefully I get points for that. Please review I really need input and I promise the story is going somewhere. This is taking longer than I expected but I'm determined to pull it out. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!**

**DFTBA**


	21. Tory, Men in Black and Another Chat

**Sorry it's been so long I'll get strait to what you really want.**

**I do not own Virals.**

**Tory: **

"What are you talking about Tor?" Ben asked softly rubbing my back and being the amazing best friend that I didn't deserve.

"Nothing" I said wiping my eyes. "Forget I said anything."

"Tory what do you think is your fault?" he insisted. We heard the argument outside our parents against the Agents.

"We should probably get out there before they kill each other." I felt Ben's eyes on me. So I looked at him meeting his gorgeous brown eyes, silently willing him to drop it.

"Fine but you owe me an explanation." I smiled slightly, giving my silent thanks. He stood pulling me to my feet as well. As we came out of the bathroom we met the fire fight of words between my dad, Agent Sharp, the other agent, and Ben's mom. Dad stopped upon seeing me and rushed over.

"Are you ok Tory? what happened? Why were you crying?..." he would have gone on for longer but I cut him off.

"I… I just got a little over emotional I guess, I just needed a minute to pull myself together." Dad looked as if he were about to start arguing but I cut him off again. "I'm fine. Really."

"Well we're leaving!" Ben's mom said. "If you want to ask my son any more questions you can speak with my lawyers."

"It's not that big of a deal mom." Ben said but his reasoning went absolutely nowhere.

"Yes it is Benjamin no one is going to speak to my son as if he is a common criminal. I don't care if they are federal agents. Now let's go." Ben tried to argue but caught my eye first nodded telling him to go. He sighed but gave in.

"Come on Tory we're leaving too." I didn't argue ether I simply let him lead me outside and into the car. I was surprised to find that it was already one in the after noon. I said a silent prayer that Shelton and Hi had better news from the loony bin.

I signed back onto the chatroom and sent a message to the guys.

_Alphawolf: meeting at the bunker tonight 9:30. _Ben's response came in first.

_Lilboiblue: can we make it ten? Gotta sneak around mom._

_Alphawolf: you don't have to come if it'll get you into trouble, we could just put you on video chat._

_Lilboiblue: You can't get rid of me that easy Brenan. Make it ten and I'll be there. _

_Alfawolf: fine but be careful you can't go with me to the stupid sociopath society if you're grounded._

_Lilboiblue: I wouldn't bet against me if I were you Tor._

_Alfawolf: of course not if you were me I wouldn't be so concerned. _

_Lilboiblue: you're hilarious Brenan. _

_Alfawolf: I'll be here all week. _

_Larryduckableguy: logged on_

_Larryduckableguy: He wasn't there._

_Alfawolf: you made it!_

_Larryduckableguy: We just got out, the place looked like a set for __Men in Black __and when we asked about Chance we got the run around. We snuck farther in and none of the other patients have seen him in a week or more. If he is still there they've got him locked up somewhere super-secret._

_Lilboiblue: what do you mean '__Men in Black'__?_

_Larryduckableguy: Oh come on! Even you have to know that one it's a classic movie! _

_Lilboiblue: I know the movie! I was asking why you made the reference. _

_Larryduckableguy: There were government stooges all over the place, none of them funny as Will Smith. _

_Alfawolf: do you know why. _

_Larryduckableguy: I'm pretty sure they're there because of Chance they got pretty jumpy when we brought him up. _

_Alfawolf: Can you guys get to the bunker at 10?_

_Larryduckableguy: can do. _

_Lilboiblue: gotta go see ya tonight. _

_Lilboiblue: logged off._

_Larryduckableguy: so what's this about you going to one of your social torture sessions with our little Benji?_

_Alfawolf: I'll see you tonight Hi._

With this I logged off.

**Sorry it's not much but I've been crazy busy I hope to do a little catching up over Christmas break, I'm getting there I promise. Please review! Thanks' to all my readers! **

**DFTBA **


	22. Ben, Tory Stress and Fear

**Sorry again! I don't intend for this stuff to take so long I just couldn't get this one right. it seems like the farther I go with this story the harder it is to keep it working. But I am determined so It may take until I graduate collage but I will finish this one and I really hope all of you will like it. So read and review hopefully the next one won't take so long.**

**I do not own Virals.**

Ben

As usual I was the last to get to the bunker. Tory and Coop were standing waiting for me. Coop met me and jumped up, nearly knocking me over. Tory stifled a giggle.

"You should really train your dog better." I said.

"Oh come on he was just worried about you." She said making a pouty face and calling Coop back to her. "He's a good doggy. Aren't you Cooper? Yeah!" she smiled and rubbed the exited wolf pup (if you could still call him that)'s ears. It was good to see her like this. Considering everything that was happening, a smile from Tory was like a bright yellow dandelion in the middle of a brown and grey half frozen dump. But the smile didn't last something was off about her but I could tell it wasn't the time.

"We should get inside." I said and we made our way into our secret home away from home.

"Finally!" Hi said and I shot him a look then something amazing/terrifying happened, Hiram just sat there and kept his mouth shut.

"Ok, will you tell us what the FBI wanted with you now?" Shelton asked.

"They were asking questions about the body we found the other day." she paused "It was Hannah." Her voice was a little strained.

Hi and Shelton stared finally Hi spoke.

"But she was in Columbia? How…? What…?" he took a deep breath, "They thought you two had something to do with it?"

"It seemed that way." I answered.

"But you've been here, there are police reports to prove it." Shelton said.

"I think they know that." Tory said we all turned to her. "They are the FBI." She explained. "It was pretty clear that they had known who it was for a while, and they seemed to know just about everything about us. They would have asked the police about her case, they had to have known Ben and I have been here the whole time."

"Then why question us again?" I asked.

"Maybe they just wanted a firsthand account." Hi suggested.

"I don't think so they were pushing us too much for that."

"You don't think they… you know… know? Do you?" Shelton asked.

"No." Tory said confidently. "But I think they suspect something… I don't know what exactly. But Ben's right, they were fishing for something."

"Well what happened? How did Hannah end up here?" Hi asked

"They said she was kidnapped." I entered.

"Kidnapped? Who would want that nutjob?"

"They didn't say."

"You think it was some kind of ransom thing do you? Like her parent's wouldn't pay up and they just couldn't deal with her anymore so they just you know..." Shelton asked.

"The FBI wouldn't be keeping that so quiet." I said.

"Hold up if Hannah was kidnapped…?" Hi started. "Do you think the same people took Chance?" we all stopped and turned to Tory.

"I don't know," she said "what exactly happened at the mental hospital?"

"Well we went to the nut house and it was like they were expecting a meeting between about twelve nuclear bombs security was on super steroids and every time we tried to talk about Chance they gave us the run around until they kicked us out we thought it was weird so we snuck around and checked his room he wasn't there we kept looking we asked some patients and either they denied everything or flipped out on us, I even tried the computers, which could really use a security upgrade, and it was like chance had been completely erased. It didn't take long for one of them to attract a little too much attention and get kicked out again." Shelton recounted.

"Wait." I said. "If security was so high how did you get back in?"

"Let's just say you should all be thankful of my vast knowledge of movies featuring mental illnesses." Hi said.

"Oh you said Hi was a patient, yeah I suppose that no one would need too much convincing for that." I said.

"We got in didn't we?" he defended angrily

"Only after you got yourself kicked out." I said

"We got what we needed didn't we? You can always trust us me and Shelton."

"What you can't trust me and Tory?"

"Oh sure we can trust Tory to get herself into about 200 tons of trouble, and you to always be late."

"That happened twice! And I'm sorry I have to sneak off take my boat out in the dark to get here."

"Oh, right, you've been locked in your room by your mommy." Hi said

"You would know all about that wouldn't you Hiram." I snapped.

"At least my mom doesn't think I'm some wild animal!" he snapped back.

"That's enough!" Tory commanded. "Look we're all stressed out right now." She said more calmly. "Maybe we should just go home and sleep this off."

"Oh yeah defend you're little boy friend, maybe if you hadn't lost control and flared for no freaking reason we wouldn't even be here!" when I saw the look on Tory's face, the same look she had earlier, I broke. I launched myself at Hi without even thinking, knocking him back into the wall. Luckily before I could start pounding him I was pulled back by Shelton and Tory. Shelton then pulled Hi up, Tory keeping a strong hold on me. Hi pushed Shelton off and stormed out. Shelton looked back at Tory and me then ran after him. Tory let me go.

"Sorry, I…" I started but Tory cut me off.

"You should probably get back, before your mom finds out you're gone." She said and she left coop trailing behind her.

I fell into a lawn chair and covered my eyes _I'm such an idiot._

Tory:

As I walked back toward the compound Hi's voice rang in my ears. It was my fault. All of it, not just this but what happened over the summer, what happened with Hannah and Chance… everything if it wasn't for me we wouldn't have this huge secret, Ben might still be here… everything was my fault.

_It doesn't matter Brennan, it happened, and right now you need to focus. _But that wasn't much better. My mind raced around, analyzing everything that had happened since we found Hannah. Everything we found out, She was kidnapped, tied up, shot and thrown in the back of a wagon behind a decaying jail. I couldn't imagine how she felt, how scared she was. I'd had heard the cold click of a cocking gun preparing to send a bullet right thru me, but to be sitting there unable to do anything no hope of escape, no way to fight back… who could do that to someone even someone like Hannah Wryth. And what if they had Chance? Would they do the same thing to him? What were they after? Why Hannah? Why Chance? What was going on? And what if they come after someone else? Then a question occurred to me that terrified me more than anything else.

What if they come after the Virals? I told myself that was crazy. I told myself I was just being stupid. However, there were a few things I always knew about myself I wasn't beautiful, I wasn't coordinated and I definitely wasn't stupid. 

_**If you don't like the dandelion in the dump thing get over it. I'll admit this is an odd reference but I stand by it, if you've ever seen a dandelion in a dump you would understand**_

**Again sorry it took so long. But I hope you liked it. things are getting tense and I hope I can pull this off to suit you. Tell me what you think, that will really help me.**

**DFTBA **


	23. Tory, Talk and WHAT!

**I do not own Virals! **

Tory

I couldn't really explain my feelings as I walked the path back to the compound. Honestly I wasn't even sure I understood them. I knew I was frightened and nervous about more than one thing but there were so many levels and brands of fear and nervousness I felt I might explode. And things weren't about to get any better.

As I reached the front door I tried to push away the bunker, Hannah and anything else to do with the Virals out of my mind. I had other problems here. This fact was proven the second I saw Whitney and my Dad sitting on the couch waiting for me.

"What's up?" I asked as casually as possible.

"Tory sit down." Dad said patting the chair across from them. I did as I was told wondering which of my many problems we were about to discuss. "Tory, Whitney and I have been talking and frankly we're quite worried about you." I didn't say anything. I just looked from my dad to Whitney and back.

"Honey you need to know you can talk to us," Whitney said in her southern taffy voice.

"About what?" I asked.

"Anything, you haven't been yourself lately. If there is anything wrong you can tell us."

_Oh just that I'm a mutant with super powers who has been fighting that and trying to solve a murder and possible missing person's case all while fighting you about stupid things like school and cotillion. That I have been shot at or had guns trained on me and my friends more times than I would care to count that I might be in love with one of my best friends, but his mom thinks I'm a monster and I'm starting to think she might be right. _How could I say any of that? How could I tell them anything without being shipped to the loony bin, or worse?

"Just school stuff." I lied. Dad sighed.

"It's more than that." he insisted. "Is it the FBI thing because they can't actually think you had anything to do with it."

"No, I know that." I said

"Is it Ben sweetie?" Whitney asked. Changing to an only slightly better subject.

"No." I insisted "I told you Ben and I are just friends."

"Is that the problem?" she kept up.

"NO!" I said rather harshly.

"We're just trying to help honey." Whitney reacted.

"I told you I'm just a little stressed about school." I said.

"You've never had any trouble in school Tory, there has to be more to this." Dad kept pushing.

"You can tell us. I know this time can be confusing and everything else isn't helping but we need to understand" Whitney added. "Is it about your mother? Do you miss her? I know it's been almost a year…" the word mother still cut strait thru my heart. And it wasn't something I could take at the moment.

"Don't bring my mom into this." I said in a soft but condemning tone. That was the last thing I needed to think about right then. "I told you I'm fine. Why can't you just trust me?"

"It's not that we don't trust you Tor, it's just that with everything that's happening, we want you to know you can come to us." Dad said. I couldn't take much more, the fact was that I couldn't talk to them especially not Whitney she would probably cart me off to some institution somewhere.

"It's just stress dad. I promise." I lied thru my teeth and tried to escape to the stairs, but got caught.

"Wait Tory there's one more thing." I turned. "I've asked Whitney to marry me, and she said yes."

**AHHHHHHHHHH I know heck of a thing to tell a girl who just said she was already stressed. Anyway I am unbelievably sorry for how long this took I was originally going in a completely different direction but the story line disagreed Tomorrow is my last day of school so I really hope I can get farther ahead. I do however have a rather busy schedule and in reply to reviews, I'm sorry about the flare flair thing I will do my absolute best to be better. And a special thank you to Wolfgirlrocks1 you seriously made my month with that review and just to put it in perspective Iron man three and the new Star Trek came out this month so that was really good. Readers like you are the reason I write. I love you guys even when you correct me. I'll try to do better on this next chapter it's getting where I'm really just trying to get to the big ideas. I never expected this to take so long sorry again. **

**DFTBA!**


	24. Tory, Worries and Changes

**I'M SO SORRY! I wont make you wait any longer**

**I do not own Virals**

Tory

I couldn't believe my ears or eyes as Whitney showed me the ring.

"Married?" I asked.

"We love each other Tory, and now that I'm director and my job seems stable, it just seems like the best thing to do. Plus you can't talk to your dad about everything I know that, and having another woman around might help." He tried to explain.

"Why didn't you say anything before?" I asked. "Did you even think about talking to me before you did this?"

"Tory we wanted to…" Whitney started but I stopped her.

"I was asking my father not you." I said harshly.

"Now Tory, don't talk to her like that. It was our decision to do this together. I thought you would be happy for us." dad said.

"I know you're still kind of new at this but you're my Dad. I know you love her and that's great, but this is my life too, and you didn't even ask me."

"Tory…"

"I know you think I need some kind of female influence but I already had that, I had my mom my whole life. Whitney isn't bad but she is nothing like me. You think you're doing what's best for me; stuffing me into dresses, making me deal with society types that don't even like me, pushing me to go to governor's school, and now this. You never said anything; you never asked me what I need. I had a mom, and I carry her with me. You don't know anything about what I need because you never ask what I think, this is my life too."

"I'm not trying you replace your mom Tory." Kit said

"That's not the problem! I can't very well expect you to replace someone you barely knew. But you can't expect me to just sit and smile as you make a huge change to my life. You wonder why I don't talk to you but the fact is, you don't listen."

"Victoria…"

"Just stop Kit." I said fighting the tears. "You're gonna do what you want. What does it matter what I think?" I made it out the door this time I ran for a few minutes and finally just walked I didn't want to go back to the bunker, I didn't want to think about that. I just walked thru the woods until I came to the beach I was crying and coop was beside me I sat down and pet him. Usually this calmed me right down, but nothing was helping. I felt like screaming crying for help. I felt like I was, in my head I felt like I was crying out. Tired of fighting I let myself cry, feeling every bit of stress and pain I had been holding. I kept crying until I heard something behind me. I froze, Coop was right beside me and he heard it too. I slowly stood up and faced the woods, cooper got in front of me and growled. But a voice set us both at ease.

"I didn't mean to scare you." Ben said coming into the moonlight.

"Ben." I sighed. "What are you still doing here?"

"I was just sitting around at the bunker, and I don't know I just started wandering around." He said

"Well you should probably get back before your mom finds out you're gone." I said

"Tory are you ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine." I lied.

"Which means you're not ok at all. What's wrong?" Ben could see right through me.

"Kit just told me he and Whitney are getting married." I said.

"Well I knew you didn't really love Whitney but, you had to know that could happen eventually." He said.

"He didn't even ask me he just did it. My mom always asked me if I was ok with her going on a first date, I guess I just assumed that if he proposed I'd be the first to know… and on top of Hannah and Chance and everything that's happening… I just couldn't take it." I tried to explain.

"Anyone would be stressed, it's alright to get upset." He said. I plopped down on the sand. And he sat next to me.

"What's happening to us?" I asked looking Ben in the eyes. "When we saved the loggerhead institute I thought for sure things were looking up getting better. I thought we were getting a hang of this Virals thing. I thought we would be able to stay together. I thought things wouldn't have to change. How was I so wrong?"

"I know what you mean. And I know I haven't been making it any easier…"

"It's not your fault…" I blinked out some resurging tears. Turning my head hoping he wouldn't see. "It's mine." My voice cracked. He reached over and made me face him.

"You said that before, but you can't blame yourself for all this."

"It is my fault Ben! I wanted to find out what was on that stupid dog tag, I wanted to save Coop, if it wasn't for me we wouldn't even be in this mess right now."

"That's true. If you weren't here then I would have been living with my mom while my dad tried to find a job, Shelton and Hi would be god only knows where, Coop would probably be dead, Katherine Heaton never would have gotten justice, and who knows what else… whatever is happening we're in it together, after all you can't take credit for _everything_." I smiled a little, still not really convinced.

"Kerstin was working for someone before he died I know the cops caught a lot of the big players, but what if someone figures us out? What if whoever these people are, they're really after us?"

"That's still pretty unlikely. If anyone from back then came after us it would be because we discovered Heaton, not because we have crazy dog powers." This didn't help me much either.

"You're worried too, that dream you had the other day, you thought I was dead." I said he looked away, unable to deny it.

"Somehow you contacted me. Do you know what you did?" I asked

"No." he answered. "I was asleep, I had a nightmare and started flipping out, then I could hear you in my head."

"What happened in your dream?" I asked.

"Nothing." He lied. I remembered his voice he was screaming, crying out. I'd never heard it before but I had felt it, grief. That scream held the same grief I had when I lost my mom.

"It wasn't nothing." I insisted. "And it might help us figure out what's happening." Ben sighed in submission.

"I…" He started, and was immediately struggling to find the words. "I was behind the jail; I heard you scream…" he swallowed hard. "I couldn't find you, and then I went to the wagon and instead of Hannah inside…" he stopped.

"It was me." I finished.

"Yeah." He choked out.

"And somehow that made you connect with me."

"Apparently, I don't know exactly what happened, I just… I needed to know that you were ok." He said. Even then I could hear the tint of desperation in his voice.

"Our abilities are getting stronger. You called for me in your dreams, and now I can call for you without even flaring." He tilted his head at me.

"I just did, didn't I? I called for you because I was scared and upset. And you came." Ben didn't have to say anything the look on his face, lit by the moon, told me it was true.

**Ok again I'm sorry this took so long, I've been at Aviation and Aerospace camp and now I am preparing for band camp. So I am so sorry but I honestly have no idea what I'm going to be able to do from here on out I am swamped with band ap calc and ap English. Please just hang in there I'm gonna do the best I can. thank you all for your reviews they mean so much to me. THANK YOU ALL!**

**DFTBA (I'm so glad some of you get this!) **


	25. Chapter 25

**I know, I know… I am a horrible person for waiting so long and giving you this… but here goes**

**I own nothing ever if I did I could afford my college education. **

**Ben**

I didn't know what to say so I wrapped my arm around Tory's shoulders and she leaned against me, before I knew it I could hear someone calling. At first they seemed far away and suddenly I realized I had fallen asleep. My arm was asleep and there was something heavy on my chest I opened my eyes and saw red hair covering my chest, and the owner of the hair still resting her head on my shoulder. She groaned apparently awakened by my movement. I couldn't help but smile a bit.

"Well this is certainly interesting." A voice came from behind us making Tory jump up like a scared kitten. It was still mostly dark but I could easily make out Shelton and Hi, both smiling.

"You scare the crap out of us, and your dad, to gallivant with Beni boy over here?" Hi said tisking at us

"What time is it!?" Tory asked a little panicked.

"Almost 4 in the morning."

"Ben you have to go! Your mom is going to freak if she wakes up and you aren't there." She exclaimed. Only Tory could be in this situation and worry more about me getting into trouble than herself getting into trouble for running away.

"She's right Ben your mom's gonna freak you'd best high tail it." Shelton said.

"Right, I'll see you at school." I said mostly to Tory making eye contact to check that she was ok. She smiled just a little to reassure me, and I ran to Sewee because Tory was, as usual, right and my mom would never let me leave the house again if she found out I was ever here.

Through an incredible stroke of luck mom got up about five minutes after I crawled back in through my window. All I had to say was that I didn't sleep well, to explain the bags under my eyes.

"Ben I need you to try this on before you go to school." Mom said, after I ate breakfast, then pulled something from the closet; a black tux, pressed white shirt, and green silk tie. Suddenly it hit me. "Tory's dance!" I realized.

"Don't tell me you forgot Benjamin. I hope you like the suit Victoria's mom helped me pick it out, it goes perfectly with the dress she'll be wearing."

"Whitney is not Tory's mom." I said "and how'd you know my size?"

"You are my son Ben. I happen to know your size, and I suppose you haven't heard but Whitney will soon be Victoria's step mother."

I kept my mouth tightly closed, refusing to give that statement a response.

"Either way I need to know exactly how it fits so if any alterations need to be made I can take it to the tailor today."

"uh sure." I said taking the tux.

**Tory **

When I got home dad lectured me for nearly an hour telling me never to scare him like that, but I was still not happy with him so the most he got back was a "Yes" and mild "I'm sorry." I told him at least part of the truth in that I had ran off to sit on the beach and fallen asleep. Hi and Shelton backed me up, and although this did get me a lecture about the creepers and animals in Charleston and how I should never go out alone at night like that, it didn't get Ben into any trouble. I was relieved when he texted me an all clear after he got back home. We didn't talk about Whitney who had retired to the kitchen while dad lectured me. When he finally let me go get ready for school I showered and dressed before I realized there was something on my bed a sea green silk party dress. Cotillion is tomorrow!

**Yeah I'm really sorry, I would say I will do better but I honestly don't know when anything will get posted again and I'm sorry this chapter kind of stinks but I am a senior and I have 3 AP Tests coming up. I'll try to get things out as soon as possible and I promise, good bad or ugly I will complete this story. Thank you for your reviews they mean so much to me, even the more critical ones the next chapter is the big one so… no telling how long it will take. **

**DFTBA **


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